Call completion via instant communications client

ABSTRACT

A system is disclosed for achieving completion of a telephone call by way of an instant communications client.

PRIORITY CLAIM AND CROSS-REFERENCE

[0001] The present application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/404,330 filed Apr. 2, 2003, entitled “CallCompletion via Instant Communications Client”, which in-turn claimspriority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 60/369,271(Atty. Docket CDR-02-002PR), filed Apr. 2, 2002, entitled“Chat-Accessible Services in a Communication System,” assigned to theassignee of the present application and incorporated herein by referenceits entirety.

[0002] The present application is also related to the followingco-pending applications, which are assigned to the assignee of thepresent application and incorporated herein by reference in theirentireties:

[0003] U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/404,110, filed Apr. 2, 2003,entitled “Billing System for Services Provided via InstantCommunications;”

[0004] U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/404,111, filed Apr. 2, 2003,entitled “Messaging Response System;”

[0005] U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/404,113 filed April 2, 2003,entitled Communications Gateway with Messaging CommunicationsInterface;”

[0006] U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/404,093 filed Apr. 2, 2003,entitled “Media Translator;”

[0007] U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/404,104 filed Apr. 2, 2003,entitled “Billing System for Communications Services involving Telephonyand Instant Communications;”

[0008] U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/404,079 filed Apr. 2, 2003,entitled “Enhanced Services Call Completion;”

[0009] U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 10/404,541 filed Apr. 2, 2003,entitled “Providing of Presence Information to a Telephony ServicesSystem;” and

[0010] U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 10/404,094 filed Apr. 2, 2003,entitled “Telephony Services System with Instant CommunicationsEnhancements.”

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0011] The present invention relates to communications systems andmethods and more particularly to facilitating the establishment ofcommunications among users of communications systems.

BACKGROUND

[0012] A communications system serves to transport information amongusers or among points served by the system. One way to maximize theusefulness of a communications system is to facilitate the establishmentof communications among users of the system. As one party seeks tocommunicate with another party, this may involve assisting in obtainingcontact information for a given user or destination, or providing avariety of methods by which communication may be arranged.

[0013] For example, in a telephone network, a large proportion of callsare completed by direct dialing from one telephone to another. However,further effectiveness is achieved by the offering of interactiveoperator services or “enhanced services” to facilitate communicationsamong parties. In some cases, enhanced services may be provided to helpa caller by locating a telephone number for a called party or byconnecting the caller to the called party. An enhanced service may alsoallow a caller to exercise a broad range of billing arrangements, suchas calling card billing, billing to subscriber account numbers andcollect calling.

[0014] To access an enhanced service in a telephony network, a callermay dial a telephone number such as ‘0’ for an operator or‘1-800-COLLECT’ (™) to reach a collect call platform or yet anothernumber to reach a prepaid calling card platform. Through interactionwith an automated VRU or a human operator in an enhanced services callprocessing platform, the caller typically provides information by voiceor by in-band DTMF tones to convey the nature of service desired, tospecify a called party, and to pass along information relevant tobilling and authentication.

[0015] The offering of enhanced services is beneficial to a commercialservice provider at least because increased call completion leads toincreased billable usage of the system. The service provider may alsoseek to offer differentiating services to attract business or realize anadditional revenue by charging fees for the use of such services.

[0016] Especially with the advent of newer types of communication,further measures are required to enhance the effectiveness of acommunication system as parties seek to communicate with one another. Inparticular, it is desirable to maximize the ease with which one party isable to communicate with another party through whatever means areavailable. For a variety of reasons, a called party may not be reachableat a particular telephone number or may simply prefer to engage in othermodes of communication rather than by phone.

SUMMARY

[0017] The present invention addresses the need to increase theflexibility and ease with which parties may establish communications. Aswill be described, the present invention achieves advantages inestablishing communications despite the increased use of multiple, andoften disparate, modes of communication such as telephony and instantmessaging.

[0018] One aspect of the present invention relates to a method andsystem of processing a telephone call to a called party, in which atelephone call originated by a calling party from a telephone isreceived, and the telephone call to the called party is completed via atext-based instant messaging session. This may be especially desirableto parties already engaged in voice communications with others but whoare willing and able to simultaneously carry on text chatcommunications. This capability may also increase completion of calls toparties who do not have voice-enabled messaging clients and audiohardware.

[0019] Another aspect of the present invention involves a method ofprocessing a telephone call to a called party, in which a telephone calloriginated by a calling party is received, a presence identifier of thecalled party is obtained, and then the telephone call is coupled forinteractive communications with the called party based on the presenceidentifier. Examples of the presence identifier include: screen name, analias, a handle, an electronic pseudonym, a chat identifier, an addressof some nature, and an instant message identifier. The presenceidentifier is a handle that can be used to query a server fordetermining a communications state of the called party, indicating atleast whether the called party is available to accept delivery ofinstant communications.

[0020] In various embodiments, the presence identifier may correspond toany type of identifier associated with the called party and can beobtained, for example, by prompting the calling party for the presenceidentifier and receiving the presence identifier over the telephonecall. Alternatively, the caller may provide a telephone number, e-mailaddress or other identifier of the called party, whereupon a databasemay be consulted to obtain a presence identifier corresponding to theidentifier provided by the caller.

[0021] Yet another aspect of the present invention pertains to a methodand system for completing a telephone call to a called party, in which atelephone call originated by a calling party is received and, afterdetermining that the called party is online and available for acceptingdelivery of instant communications, an instant communication session isinitiated between the calling party and the called party. The instantcommunication session can be any session in which messages are deliveredat a rate capable of supporting an interactive session, such as a chatsession, a voice-enabled chat session, an instant messaging session, anInternet Relay Chat session, and setting up a Voice-over-IP (VoIP)session between the calling party and the called party.

[0022] Still another aspect of the present invention includes a methodof processing a telephone call to a called party, comprising: receivinga telephone call originated by a calling party; obtaining a telephonenumber of the called party; and attempting to reach the called party atthe telephone number. If the called party is not reached at thetelephone number, then the method includes: obtaining a presenceidentifier corresponding to the called party; and connecting thetelephone call to the called party via an instant communications clientbased on the presence identifier.

[0023] In other aspects of embodiments of the invention, human orautomated relay services for deaf, blind and people with other forms ofdisabilities can be provided to augment and provide additional serviceofferings and telecommunications services for people with disabilities.For example, when a called party is accessible only by textual chat, ablind person wanting to communicate with the called party via chat mustfind another party willing to help with the communication or seek out acomputer workstation or the like equipped with a chat client and speechsynthesis capabilities. Implementations of the present invention allow ablind person to use any telephone connected to the traditional publictelephone network to interact with another party who is at that timeavailable on, or using, a textual-based instant messaging system. Thiscapability may be provided without requiring or burdening relay systemsthat are used by the deaf to perform textual communications. In someaspects, the invention can significantly simplify the ability of suchusers to participate in new and emerging forms of instantcommunications.

[0024] In another aspect, embodiments of the present invention can beintegrated with billing services to provide a flexible arrangement forcharging and recovering costs of providing instant messaging services.

[0025] An exemplary embodiment of the present invention discloses acommunication system acting to establish communications between atelephone of a telephone network and an instant communications clientcoupled to an instant messaging server. The communication systemcomprising an interactive voice processing system operably coupled tothe telephone network to provide interactive voice services to a firstparty using the telephone, a messaging interface acting to communicatewith the instant messaging server, a speech-to-text translator acting toconvert audio information received from the first party via thetelephone into corresponding textual information to be received by asecond party using the instant communications client, and atext-to-speech translator acting to convert textual information receivedfrom the second party via the instant communications client into audioinformation to be received by the first party via the telephone.

[0026] Another exemplary embodiment of the present invention discloses acommunications system acting to establish communications between atelephone of a telephone network and an instant communications client.The communications system comprising an interactive voice processingsystem operably coupled to the telephone network to provide interactivevoice services to a first party using the telephone, apresence-determining process for determining a presence state associatedwith a second party indicative of the second party's availability tocommunicate via the instant communications client, and a gateway controlinterface acting to cause a voice-over-packet gateway operably coupledthereto to establish voice communications between the first party usingthe telephone and the second party using the instant communicationsclient.

[0027] Another exemplary embodiment of the present invention discloses acommunications system acting to establish communications between atelephone of a telephone network and an instant communications client.The communications system comprising an interactive voice processingsystem operably coupled to the telephone network to provide interactivevoice services to a first party using the telephone, apresence-determining process for determining a presence state associatedwith the second party indicative of the second party's availability tocommunicate via the instant communications client, and avoice-over-packet gateway for establishing voice communications betweenthe first party using the telephone and the second party using theinstant communications client.

[0028] Another exemplary embodiment of the present invention discloses acommunication system for establishing communication among partiescoupled to the communication system comprising request receiving meansfor receiving from a first party using a telephone device, a request toestablish communications with a second party, means for determiningwhether instant communications may be established with the second party,and communications establishing means for establishing communications,comprising instant communications, between the first party and thesecond party responsive to whether instant communications may beestablished with the second party.

[0029] Another exemplary embodiment of the present invention discloses acommunication system for establishing communication among partiescoupled to the communication system comprising means for receiving arequest from a first party to establish communications with a secondparty using a first mode of communicating, means for determining whetherthe second party is accessible via a second mode of communicating, andmeans for establishing communications between the first party and thesecond party using at least the second mode of communication responsiveto whether the second party is accessible via the second mode ofcommunicating.

[0030] Another exemplary embodiment of the present invention discloses acommunication system for establishing communication among partiescoupled to the communication system comprising means for receiving froma first party a request to establish communications with a second partyusing a first mode of communication, means for determining whether thesecond party is accessible via the first mode of communication, meansfor determining a second mode of communicating with the second partyresponsive to whether the second party is accessible via the first modeof communicating, and means for establishing communications, comprisingthe second mode of communication, between the first party and the secondparty.

[0031] Another exemplary embodiment of the present invention discloses acommunication system for establishing communication among partiescoupled to the communication system comprising means for detecting anunanswered telephone call from a first party to a second party, meansfor determining whether instant communications may be established withthe second party, and means for establishing communications, comprisinginstant communications, between the first party and the second partyresponsive to whether instant communications may be established with thesecond party.

[0032] Another exemplary embodiment of the present invention discloses acommunications system for establishing communications among partiescomprising communicating means for establishing communications amongtelephones and instant communications clients, means for receiving atelephone call from the first party by the action of the first partyusing a telephone to call a telephone number, the telephone numberhaving been provided to the first party for communicating with thecommunications system, means for receiving a request from the firstparty to establish communications with a second party, means foridentifying an instant communications client associated with the secondparty, and means for establishing communications, responsive to therequest, between the first party and the instant communications clientusing the communication system.

[0033] Another exemplary embodiment of the present invention discloses acommunications system for establishing communications between atelephone of a telephone network and an instant communications client.The communications system comprising interactive voice processing meansoperably coupled to the telephone network to provide interactive voiceservices to a first party using the telephone, presence determiningmeans for determining a presence state associated with a second partyindicative of the second party's availability to communicate via theinstant communications client, and gateway control interface means forcausing a voice-over-packet gateway operably coupled thereto toestablish voice communications between the first party using thetelephone and the second party using the instant communications client.

[0034] Another exemplary embodiment of the present invention discloses acommunications system operable to establish communications between atelephone of a telephone network and an instant communications client.The communications system comprising interactive voice processing meansoperably coupled to the telephone network to provide interactive voiceservices to a first party using the telephone, presence determiningmeans for determining a presence state associated with the second partyindicative of the second party's availability to communicate via theinstant communications client, and voice-over-packet gateway means forestablishing voice communications between the first party using thetelephone and the second party using the instant communications client.

[0035] Another exemplary embodiment of the present invention discloses acommunication system for establishing communications between a telephoneof a telephone network and an instant communications client coupled toan instant messaging server. The communication system comprisinginteractive voice processing means operably coupled to the telephonenetwork to provide interactive voice services to a first party using thetelephone, messaging interface means for communicating with the instantmessaging server, speech-to-text translator means for converting audioinformation received from the first party via the telephone intocorresponding textual information to be received by a second party usingthe instant communications client, and text-to-speech translator meansoperable to convert textual information received from the second partyvia the instant communications client into audio information to bereceived by the first party via the telephone.

[0036] Another exemplary embodiment of the present invention discloses,in a communication system, a device for establishing communications. Thedevice comprising telephony interface means for enabling communicationswith a first party via a telephone call, instant messaging interfacemeans for communicating with at least one instant communications client,and information translator means for translating communications betweenthe first party and the instant communications client.

[0037] Another exemplary embodiment of the present invention discloses,in a communications system, a device acting to establish communications.The device comprising a telephony interface acting to enablecommunications with a first party via a telephone call, an instantmessaging interface acting to communicate with an instant communicationsclient, and an information translator acting to translate communicationsbetween the first party and the instant communications client.

[0038] Still other aspects, features, and advantages of the presentinvention will be readily apparent from the following detaileddescription, simply by illustrating a number of particular embodimentsand implementations, including the best mode contemplated for carryingout the present invention. The present invention is also capable ofother and different embodiments, and its several details can be modifiedin various obvious respects, all without departing from the spirit andscope of the present invention. Accordingly, the drawing and descriptionare to be regarded as illustrative in nature, and not as restrictive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0039] The present invention is illustrated by way of example, and notby way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings and inwhich like reference numerals refer to similar elements and in which:

[0040]FIG. 1 depicts a communication network in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention;

[0041]FIGS. 2A and 2B together depict a call-flow diagram of apresence-based call completion session with calling party termination inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

[0042]FIGS. 3A and 3B together depict a call-flow diagram of apresence-based call completion session with called party termination inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

[0043]FIGS. 4A and 4B together depict a call-flow diagram of apresence-based call completion session with calling party re-originationin accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

[0044]FIGS. 5A and 5B together depict a call-flow diagram of apresence-assisted, Voice-over-IP call completion session in accordancewith one embodiment of the present invention;

[0045]FIG. 6 depicts a computer system that can be used to implement anembodiment of the present invention;

[0046] FIGS. 7A-7D depict a process by which an enhanced services systemmay offer a caller an option of communicating to a messaging client of acalled party in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention;

[0047] FIGS. 8A-8D depict a process by which a caller may contact anenhanced services system to establish communications to a messagingclient of a called party in accordance with an exemplary embodiment ofthe present invention; and

[0048] FIGS. 9A-9D depict a process by which an unanswered call may behandled by an enhanced services system to offer a caller an option ofcommunicating to a messaging client of a called party in accordance withan exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AN EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENT

[0049] Systems, methods and computer-implemented processes for callprocessing are described. In the following description, for the purposesof explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order toprovide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It isapparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the present inventionmay be practiced without these specific details or with an alternativeequivalent arrangement. In other instances, well-known structures anddevices are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid unnecessarilyobscuring the present invention.

[0050] The present invention addresses the need to increase theflexibility and ease with which parties may establish communications. Aswill now be described using several exemplary embodiments, the presentinvention achieves advantages in establishing communications despite theincreased use of multiple, and often disparate, modes of communicationsuch as telephony and instant messaging.

[0051] An alternative form of communications popularized in recent yearsis messaging communications. Messaging communications are generallycharacterized by a communicating party determining a finite amount ofinformation to be sent as a message. Messaging communications typicallyinvolve one or more discrete messages sent by a party to one or moreother parties. A message may comprise text, data or digitized audio orvideo information, for example, or even combinations of these.Electronic mail (e-mail) and text paging are forms of messagingcommunications.

[0052] In contrast to messaging, other forms of communications, such astelephony, enable a period of essentially continuous (and usually fullduplex) two-way conversation between parties in the context of a singlesession or connection. As in the example of telephony, the partiesgenerally only determine the time duration of the overall session andare not engaged in composing and sending messages of a specific size.

[0053] ‘Instant messaging’ refers to messaging communications whereinthe delays in readying the message for delivery (such as addressing to arecipient), transporting the message, and bringing the message to theattention of the recipient are sufficiently short or imperceptible thatparties may communicate in a nearly conversational manner. In the caseof a form of instant communications known as ‘text chat’ sessions, theconversational pace is often limited mainly by the time it takes forchat participants to compose and finalize messages to be transmitted.The acceptable margin of delay in message transmission may be on adifferent scale than for the endto-end delay margins in telephonecommunications, but the objectionable impact of excess delay onperceived fluency of communications is a common detriment to both modesof communication.

[0054] Instant messaging may be considered a type of instantcommunications. Some popular applications that are commonly used forinstant messaging include, for example, America Online (AOL) InstantMessenger™ (hereinafter AIM), Yahoo!® Messenger and MSN® Messenger. Thepresent invention is not limited to embodiments using these specificapplications, technologies or services and maybe applied in the contextof private or semi-private messaging systems such as a system usedwithin an enterprise, company, or otherwise isolated or segregated usercommunity.

[0055] In one sense, ‘instant communications’ may refer to a style ofcommunicating wherein the communicating parties experience substantiallyimmediate establishment of communications on a per-message basis. In thecontext of instant messaging, a selection may be initially made by afirst party to open a dialog with a specific second party. Thereafter,the parties may spontaneously generate and send messages without havingto address each message or perform other steps preparatory to thesending of each message.

[0056] Furthermore, the term “instant communications” may be applicablein the sense of there being no user-perceivable session establishment aseach message is sent, even though each message is in fact sent as abrief burst of information transmission activity through the network. Atsome level, each transmission burst may be handled as a separatecommunications session.

[0057] The user does not have to engage in per-message establishment ofa session, if applicable, nor is any significant delay perceived by theuser arising from automatic session initiation that might be brieflyperformed at some level through, for example, a TCP/IP connection. Inone regard, then, the instancy of instant communications may be viewedas relating to the performance of session initiation and addressingwithout burdening the user and with sufficiently little delay as to beminimally perceptible or inconsequential to the user.

[0058] Instant communications may also be ‘instant’ in the sense that,when a message is composed and sent, it is fairly immediately routed toa destination, such as an instant messaging client. As a message iscomposed and sent, the sending party may be provided with someindication that the destination is ready to receive messages or at leasthas recently claimed to be open to receiving messages. This forehandknowledge may be provided by presence technology described below. Exceptfor very brief queueing in data buffers in routers and transmissionequipment in the course of transmission, the message is notsubstantially stored anywhere in the network for the purpose of beingdelivered to the recipient at a later time or at a time determined bythe recipient.

[0059] This instantaneous handling of messages may be contrasted to atypical e-mail system, wherein a message is often stored in a repositoryfor a significant time period waiting for the recipient mail clientapplication to poll for new mail items to download from the mail server.An electronic mail message may be stored on an e-mail server for a timeduration of less than a minute or for several hours, several days oreven indefinitely.

[0060] After polling a mail server and downloading any new messages, ane-mail client typically terminates communication with the mail serveruntil a future time when the mail client again polls the server. Thepolling may be triggered by a time interval setting or by manual requestfrom a user. Between such polling times, the mail server or servicemerely stores messages.

[0061] Another characteristic typical of instant communications isimmediate presentation of the message content to the receiving partyupon arrival of the message. A message received by an instant messagingclient is immediately presented, such as in a window in a graphical userinterface on a display device, or otherwise made known to the receivingparty. The user is not required to take any action to receive orinitiate delivery of each message that arrives. Message reception andpresentation is automatic and immediate.

[0062] In contrast to electronic mail clients, it is generallyunnecessary in instant communications for the user to poll a servereither manually or automatically at certain time intervals, nor is theuser require to take additional action, as there is with “opening” ane-mail, to have the content displayed. Furthermore, unlike an e-mail‘inbox’ stored as a file in a non-volatile storage device, there istypically no systematic storing of the received message at the receivingend for the purpose of presenting the message to the recipient for thefirst time at a time substantially later than it was received.

[0063] Instant communications may refer to any communications involvingan instant communications client, such as an instant messaging clientapplication running on a computer. An instant communications client maybe an imbedded application as embodied in a personal digital assistant(PDA), mobile phone or other portable device. An instant communicationsclient may support instant messaging, such as text-based chat. Aninstant communications client may also support audio communicationshaving little enough delay to enable interaction among communicatingparties in a nearly conversational style. As a mode of communication,instant communications may be contrasted to toll-quality telephony,which provides full-duplex communications with any transmission delaybeing mostly attributable to propagation (at electronic speeds) and tovocoder signal processing delays. Users of text messaging andvoice-enabled instant communications clients in conjunction with datatransport networks may experience greater delays or less reliabletransport than by a telephony mode of communication. Nevertheless, manyusers find instant communications to be adequate, more cost effective,and even preferable to more traditional telephony in some circumstances.The ‘instant’ quality of such communications achieves much more of areal-time interactive nature than paging or e-mail modes ofcommunication.

[0064] An instant communications client may further enhance thiscommunications by including or being coupled with technology thatconveys the capabilities, personality, intent or other meaningfulcharacteristics of the communications user. For example conversion oftext into speech which reflects age, gender, language, accents, dialectsand conversely converting speech into text or graphics that may alsorepresent the same types of attributes.

[0065] In many implementations, instant communication is complemented by“presence” technology—a mechanism through which parties receive timelyinformation about the availability of others to communicate. A presenceservice acts as an intermediary through which a party may expressavailability to communicate and may be informed about the availabilityof other parties. A description of presence technology may be found indocument RFC 2778 of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

[0066] Presence technology facilitates instant messaging and supportsthe perceived instantaneous nature thereof. Indeed, one of the keymotivations for applying presence techniques in the context of instantmessaging is that, as described above, there is typically very littlestorage of messages for later delivery to a recipient. Consequently, itis often useful for a sending party to know, before assembling andsending messages, whether the messages are likely to be received orpresented to the recipient in a timely manner. In the experience of thesending party, presence technology can be a factor affecting one'sexpectation or perception of instancy. To party intending to send amessage, presence technology attempts to provide awareness of theavailability status of the intended recipient (or at least the readinessstate of the recipient's instant communications client) beforecommunications are sent to the recipient. When a sending party doesobserve or otherwise determine that a recipient is present via presencetechnology, the party may then confidently send communications andreasonably expect that the transmitting and presenting the message tothe recipient will be immediate or nearly instantaneous. Presencediffers from, for example, the placing of a collect call in thatpresence information for a party is is often maintained before the timeit is actually needed in the context of someone communicating withparty.

[0067] In general, presence technology is intended to provide anup-to-date indication of the presence of other parties. Of course,availability information for a party may be subject to change and to theparty's desire to accept communications. The timeliness of availabilityinformation may also vary depending on implementation. A prospectivesender of communications usually does not need to perform additionalactions to ascertain presence of other parties at any point in time,such as immediately before sending a message. Instead, as in manyinstant messaging client applications, presence state of a group ofaddressees is constantly updated and indicated on a user interface. Thisself-updating aspect of some presence implementations further lends tothe instancy and spontaneity with which users may initiate and carry oninstant communications.

[0068] In the present description, a first party or user originatingcommunications may be referred to as a “caller” or “calling party.”Likewise, a second party being sought by the first party may be referredto as a “called party.” For convenience, this familiar terminology isborrowed from traditional telephony. However, it should be understoodthat the present invention is applicable in the context of othercommunications systems and the use of these terms should not imply thatit is constrained to conventional telephony in any way. A telephonenetwork is but one type of communication system wherein enhancedservices may be applied to increase the overall usefulness andeffectiveness of service provided. It will be appreciated that theprinciples of the present invention may be usefully applied in othercontexts.

[0069] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the present inventionenables, as an alternative form of communication, the establishment ofcommunications between a caller who is using a telephone and a calledparty who is using an instant communications client, such as an instantmessaging client.

[0070] In accordance with a first exemplary usage scenario, the callermay contact an enhanced services platform by phone and express a desireto reach a particular party. By virtue of various aspects of the presentinvention, the enhanced services platform is able to offer the callerthe option of communicating to the called party via voice communicationsor textual messaging through the called party's instant communicationsclient. An example of voice communications to an instant communicationclient is depicted in a commonly owned patent application, U.S.application Ser. No. 09/858,256, which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety. In the latter case of textual messaging,speech-to-text and text-to-speech translating processes may be providedso that the caller's speech can be translated into a textual instantmessage that is sent to the called party and an instant message sentfrom the called party can be translated into synthesized speech. Thisfunction can also be provided by a human operator, creating, in essence,a human relay.

[0071] In accordance with a second exemplary usage scenario, the callermay contact the enhanced services platform by dialing a specifictelephone number, such as ‘1-800-GET-CHAT’, to signify the intent tocontact a called party's instant communications client in preference toother alternatives that may be available at the time of the call.

[0072] In accordance with a third exemplary usage scenario, the callermay attempt a telephone call to a called party by dialing the calledparty's telephone number in the traditional manner. Upon recognition bysome element of the telephone system or the enhanced services systemthat the call is busy or is unanswered, the caller may be connected tothe enhanced services platform. The enhanced services platform may offerthe caller alternative ways of reaching the called party, includingtextual messaging or voice communications with the instantcommunications client of the called party as enabled by aspects of thepresent invention.

[0073] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention, presence-determining aspects of instant communicationstechnology are advantageously employed by an enhanced services platformto further improve the usefulness of the service provided. In the courseof assisting a calling party seeking to initiate communications with acalled party, the enhanced services platform may ascertain the currentavailability or a “presence state” indicating whether the called partyis available to communicate via an instant communications client. In thevarious usage scenarios described above, the presence information isused by the enhanced services platform to determine, for example,whether to offer instant communications as an alternative to a caller.

[0074] In addition to providing flexibility in how communications areestablished, it is also desirable to maximize the convenience andusefulness of a commercial communications service by offering a widevariety of payment arrangements. For example, by allowing billing to acredit card or similar impromptu arrangements, a service provider mayadvantageously accept business even from users who are not subscribersto the service. This allows for casual access by the general public andprovides revenue opportunities beyond formal pre-subscribed or prepaidarrangements, while also increasing the effectiveness and usefulness ofthe publicly available communications system or a private communicationssystem.

[0075] Some aspects of the present invention also advantageously allowfor efficiency in the use of ‘numbering’ (as in telephone networks) orother types of address space resources in a communications system, aswell as flexibility in how a called party is specified.

[0076] This consideration of numbering space in telephone networks is ofgrowing importance. Traditional numbering plans applied to telephony,such as the North American Numbering Plan, were initially structuredbased on geographical location and the need to achieve automatic routingof calls among switches in the early telephone network. More recently,the inevitable exhaust of the all of the available numbers according tothis plan has been accelerated by the increase in users requiringmultiple telephone numbers and multiple telephone lines. For a giventelephone subscriber, these multiple numbers or lines often include bothhome and business telephones, facsimile machines, wireless phones andseparate dial-up modem connections.

[0077] Accordingly, it is advantageous in one aspect to provide a singleidentifier corresponding to a given user, whereby contact made using thesingle identifier, such as a single telephone number, provides access toseveral modes of communications and perhaps several alternativelocations at which the user may be reached. For similar reasons, it isfurther desirable to implement a communications system whereinidentifiers other than, or in addition to, a conventionally structuredtelephone number may be used to specify a desired called party. Thismeasure dramatically increases the ‘address space’ from which to selectidentifiers. Where a communications system is accessed directly by humanusers, it may also be advantageous to employ identifiers that are of atextual or spoken nature, rather than numbers, that are more akin tonatural language and are easier to mentally associate with a party.

[0078] Coupled with the issues above, it may be preferable to provideaccess to an service through a single address, telephone number or otherform of identifier that is easy for users to remember and associate withthe service. This practice may provide advantages in advertising andencouraging use of the service.

[0079] Finally, the combination of these practices essentially providesfor a single number by which a vast number of called parties may beaddressed and reached, with the further advantage that the called partyaddressing used within the system need not correspond to telephonenumbers at all. Thus, one may view the teachings of the presentinvention as advantageously dealing with the telephony-related numberexhaust problem in at least two ways.

[0080] In addition to the above measures, it may be desirable to employa contact number or address such that the very act of the user accessingthe service via the specific contact number signifies or implies to theservice some aspect of how the user wants to be served. In accordancewith a preferred exemplary embodiment of the present invention, thedialing of a predetermined telephone number signifies the caller'spreference to initiate messaging communications as a preferred mode overother available modes.

[0081] In some instances, it may be desirable or advantageous to employa system wherein a single called party may be known by multiple types ofidentifiers or aliases, perhaps so that parties wishing to reach thecalled party may employ whichever handle or identifier is mostconvenient. In a suitable embodiment, a caller may be able to use any ofa variety of identifiers, aliases or addresses to specify the party theyare trying to contact. Some examples of identifiers for a party includename, street address, telephone number, e-mail address, chat screenname, alias or ‘handle’, alphanumeric pattern, network address, uniformresource identifier (URI), uniform resource locator (URL), accountnumber, spoken utterance, etc.

[0082] Taking the approach further, it is possible for a party to beassociated with multiple aliases even of the same type. This may beuseful from the standpoint of the called party being able toindependently manage inbound “traffic” from various groups oforiginators. For example, a user may provide to casual acquaintances onealias for communication while giving close friends and family members adifferent alias to be used.

[0083] In the context of user aliases, it is particularly noteworthythat, in accordance with a preferred exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention, a party may be identified using an instant messaging ‘screenname’ or the like, perhaps in addition to other identifiers such asgiven name, telephone number or account number. A caller may specify adesired party by providing a screen name by which the called party isknown in an instant messaging system. An enhanced services platform maycomprehend the screen name and facilitate contacting the correspondingcalled party by instant messaging or other means.

[0084] These advantages and desirable features, as well as the exemplaryusage scenarios mentioned above, may be realized and demonstrated in thesystem of FIG. 1 which will now be described.

Network Overview

[0085]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a communications system 100 in whichan exemplary embodiment of the present invention can be implemented. Asillustrated, a calling party 101 is capable of communicating, such as bya telephone connection, with a voice processing system (VPS) 103typically by dialing a telephone number using a telephone 102 viatelephone network 80 in order to reach a called party telephone 138.Telephone network 80 may include, for example, the Public SwitchedTelephone Network (PSTN) to which VPS 103 is interfaced. However, thepresent invention is not limited to the use of telephones and the PublicSwitched Telephone Network by the calling party 101, because the callingparty 101 may use other means to connect to the voice processing system,including mobile telephones, internet telephones, packet telephonyclients, etc.

[0086] VPS 103 may be an interactive voice processing system thatprovides operator services, which can be performed manually by a humanoperator, automatically by interactive voice response (IVR) implementedby computer processing in a telephony server, or by a combination ofmanual and automatic interaction. Both types of interactive respondentare represented in FIG. 1 by operator 52. Typically, a VPS 103 willcomprise a plurality of operator stations or ‘interactive responsestations’. Traditional examples of operator services are directoryassistance and operator-assisted call placement. In the course ofproviding various types of operator services, VPS 103 may elicitinformation from calling party 101, furnish confirmation or prompting tocalling party 101, and provide information to calling party 101. Infulfillment of some services, voice processing system 103 may alsocontrol, or at least initiate, the completion of a call from callingparty 101 to called party 137. The call may be completed in accordancewith the information provided directly by the calling party 101 orobtained from various databases, such as directories (not shown),accessible to the voice processing system 103 based on information fromthe calling party 101.

[0087] In accordance with a typical usage scenario, calling party 101uses a telephone 102 to establish contact with a called party 137. Inthe case of, for example, a collect call, a calling card call or aoperator-assisted call, calling party 101 may contact VPS 103 as anintermediary to establish the call. Calling party 101 may know thetelephone number of a called party telephone 138 associated with calledparty 137 and may want to arrange alternate billing through VPS 103rather than call phone 138 directly. Otherwise, calling party 101 maynot know the telephone number of phone 138 and may have operator 52assist in finding the telephone number. Called party 137 may beaccessible via called party client 139 rather than phone 138 and, inaccordance with an advantageous aspect of the present invention as willbe shown, VPS 103 may assist the calling party 101 in making contactwith the called party 137 despite this situation.

[0088] For practical reasons, VPS 103 is often coupled to telephonenetwork 80 through a bridging switch 54. Bridging switch 54 allows anoperator 52 to establish a call among parties in a telephone network andthen be removed from the call. Thereafter, the connection among theparties is maintained by the action of bridging switch 54 even after theoperator is released. This avoids burdening the VPS resources withhaving to maintain the connection for the duration of the call. Toachieve this advantage, a special type of trunk, known as a release linktrunk 55, is used between bridging switch 54 and VPS 103. Thisarrangement using a bridging switch is well-known among those ofordinary skill in the art and is described, for example, in U.S. Pat.No. 5,787,150.

[0089] Bridging switch 54 may be considered to be separate from orintegrated with VPS 103. In practice, bridging switch 54 is oftenphysically separate from VPS 103 yet bridging switch 54 is often ownedby or controlled by the entity that owns and controls VPS 103, sobridging switch 54 may be regarded by some, in a sense, to be part ofthe service providing system of VPS 103.

[0090] In accordance with various embodiments of the present invention,information accessible to voice processing system 103 or provided bycalling party 101 may include the telephone number associated withcalled party 137 (that of telephone 138) or a presence identifier forcalled party 137. A presence identifier is a symbolic identifierassociated with the party and referring to the party. The presenceidentifier can be used in querying a server (referred to as a “presenceserver”) or other form of presence-determining process for determining acommunications state of the party. The communications state, or“presence state”, indicates at least whether or not the party isavailable to accept delivery of preferably instant communications.Examples of instant communications include instant messages, chatmessages, voice-enabled chat, internet relay chat (IRC), voice overInternet Protocol (IP), and any other messages delivered at a ratecapable of supporting an interactive session. In contrast to thestore-and-forward approach of electronic mail, the delivery of thesetypes of instant communications is substantially immediate, enablingparties to communicate in a nearly conversational style and pace.Accordingly, a presence identifier can include any of a screen name, ahandle, an alias, an electronic pseudonym, a logical or physical addressof some nature, a chat identifier, and an instant message identifier.

[0091] VPS 103 is coupled, via connection 10, to an intelligent presencegateway (IPG) 105 for handling the presence-related processing of thecall from the calling party 101. Connection 10 may be implemented as aninterface coupling VPS 103 and IPG 105 using a mutually understoodprotocol. In this manner, VPS 103 and IPG 10 s may be manufacturedseparately yet properly interoperate when connected together in aworking installation. As used herein, an ‘interface’ refers to acoupling through which entities engage in some form of interaction, suchas the communicating of information from one to another. From thestandpoint of IPG 105, connection 10 may be indicative of a voiceprocessing system interface for passing control information. Likewise,with respect to VPS 103, this interface to IPG 105 may be regarded as apresence interface by which VPS 103 may receive presence information andother control information. Along connection 10, voice processing system103 may request and obtain a communications state for called party 137from IPG 105. As part of a request, voice processing system 103 mayspecify a particular called party 137 by using a presence identifierassociated with called party 137, if known, or by using a telephonenumber or other index adequately specifying called party 137.Alternatively, voice processing system 103 may obtain a presenceidentifier for called party 137 from IPG 105 in response to a requestspecifying the called party 137 by other means, such as by a telephonenumber.

[0092] The intelligent presence gateway 105 can be implemented by acomputer system executing one or more processes relating to specificaspects of presence-based call processing. These processes may include acapabilities process 107, a watcher process 109, a fetcher process 111,a sender process 113, and a receiver process 115. Although all of thesecomponents are labeled and illustrated in FIG. 1 as separate processes,this separation is merely functional. The present invention is notlimited to implementing each of the logical processes as separatephysical processes, and the illustrated processes may be combined intoone or more larger processes or implemented by threads or other forms ofprocedural control flows. Each function represented by processes 107through 115 may also be distributed among multiple instances andmultiple physical computing systems in a manner well understood by thoseof ordinary skill in the art.

[0093] As one form of capabilities-determining process, capabilitiesprocess 107 can be provided to query a capabilities server 117 fordetermining what kinds of communications the called party 137, or moreparticularly called party client 139, can handle. Capabilities process107 may be communicably linked, via connection 20, to a capabilitiesserver 117 or capabilities process 107 may subsume the function ofcapabilities server 117. For example, the capabilities server 117 may bea subscriber database that includes attributes and information such as apreviously registered presence identifier for the subscriber and whichkinds of communication means the subscriber has for accepting instantmessages, voice-enabled chat messages, voice-over-IP communications, andthe like. The capabilities server 117 may also store this information inassociation with the subscriber's telephone number so that the operatorservices of the voice processing system 103 can obtain the presenceidentifier of a subscriber based on the telephone number of the calledparty 137. Capabilities server 117 may also express preferences onbehalf of called party 137, such as preferred modes of communicationsthat should be attempted before other modes.

[0094] Both the watcher process 109 and the fetcher process 111 areconfigured for obtaining presence information, including thecommunications state of the called party 137, from a presence server 119via connections 22 and 24. A presence server 119 is preferablyimplemented as a computer system that furnishes the presence servicesdescribed in Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) document RFC-2778 orsimilar specifications. Examples of publicly or commercially availableinstant messaging services providing presence functionality includeAMERICA ON-LINE™, YAHOO™, etc. Alternatively, presence server 119,instant messaging server 121 and called party client 139 may representelements of proprietary, private or semi-private messaging systemswhich, for example, are operated within a business enterprise ororganization. Typically, users make their on-line presence known byregistering their communication state with the presence server 119.Specifically, when a user logs in using a messaging client somewhere onthe Internet, corporate intranets, or other similar networks, the usereffectively registers with the presence server 119 that the user isavailable, and when the user logs out, the user registers with thepresence server 119 that the user is unavailable.

[0095] In FIG. 1, called party client 139 represents a communicationsdevice, such as a computing device running a communications application,wherein a instant communications client of this type may operate. Calledparty client 139 may be communicably coupled to instant messaging server121 via connection 32 and may be communicably coupled to presence server30 via connection 30.

[0096] Connections 30 and 32 may be realized through a data transportnetwork, such as the Internet, and need not be permanent or persistentconnections. Connections 30 and 32 may be implemented through network133, which may be the public Internet or an intranet or some other formof network.

[0097] Fetcher process 111 is configured to query the presence server119 for the communications state of a specific called party 137 asreferenced by a given presence identifier. Accordingly, the fetcherprocess 111 can be used to obtain the communication state of a calledparty 137 who may or may not be pre-subscribed to the operator servicesof the voice processing system 103. If, for implementation-dependentreasons, it is not desirable to maintain a list of subscribers by thewatcher process 109, the fetcher process 111 can be used to obtain thecommunication state of the called party 137 as needed, whether or notthe intelligent presence gateway 105 or a system accessible to theintelligent presence gateway 105 has prior knowledge of the called party137.

[0098] As an alternative to fetcher process 111, which obtains presenceinformation as needed, a watcher process 109 may be used to obtainnotifications from presence server 119. Watcher process 109 may submit alist of presence identifiers of subscribers to the presence server 119.For example, these subscribers may be pre-subscribed customers of thecompany that provides the enhanced services, e.g. the company providingthe operator services at the voice processing system 103. Afterreceiving the list of parties of interest to watcher process 109,presence server 119 notifies watcher process 109 of any changes incommunication state for the listed parties. Consequently, the watcherprocess 109 is able to keep track of the latest communication state ofany of the subscribers in the list and be prepared to provide suchinformation to VPS 103. The watcher process 109 may also poll thepresence server 119 for updates to the presence information in the listof presence identifiers.

[0099] Instant messaging server 121 is a form of instant messagingserver (or service) facilitating messaging communications among parties.The sender process 113 and the receiver process 115 are configured forcommunicating with an instant messaging server 121 via connections 26and 28, respectively. Specifically, the sender process 113 is configuredto transmit messages to the instant messaging server 121, and thereceiver process 115 is configured to receive messages from the instantmessaging server 121. Multiple sender processes 113 and receiverprocesses 115 may be running on the intelligent presence gateway 105,each one being spawned for a particular corresponding enhanced servicessession. With respect to instant messaging server 121, IPG 105 may beindistinguishable in behavior from other instant messaging participantsusing the server. Sender process 113, receiver process 115 andconnections 26 and 28 are indicative of an instant messaging interfacefor IPG 105 or other elements of FIG. 1.

[0100] Preferably, the instant messaging server 121 may be implementedas a computer system that furnishes the instant message servicesdescribed in IETF document RFC-2778 or similar recommendations. Instantmessaging server 121 may be private or publicly available and may becommercial or non-commercial. The role of instant messaging server 121may be fulfilled by popular instant message services supplied by AMERICAON-LINE™, YAHOO™, etc. As another example, the instant messaging server121 can be a server that provides Internet Relay Chat (IRC). Preferably,the instant messaging server 121 is capable of both text-based messagingand voice-enabled messaging. Alternatively, in accordance with someimplementations of instant messaging, instant messaging server 121 mayonly be involved in establishing initial contact among conversingparties, with subsequent messaging taking place directly between theparties, such as between called party client 139 and receiver process115, without going through server 121. It is also feasible that thefunctions of instant messaging server 121 can be implemented by acomputer system at the called party client 139 in what may be referredto as a peer-to-peer messaging system.

[0101] Both the intelligent presence gateway 105, via connection 14, andvoice processing system 103, via connection 12, are coupled to a billingsystem 123 for recording service and session events that allow theenhanced services presence-based call completion to be charged on aper-call, per-message, per event, per minute, or other per-unit of timeor data basis. Of course, services may also be provided on asubscription basis or at a flat rate, or even billed according to acombination of basic rates and usage-based charges. The billing system123 may also be used by the voice processing system 103 to ascertainwhether there are billing restrictions on the enhanced services, forexample, to prevent fraudulent calls or calls using stolen credit cards,or to block certain types of calls such as those originating from aparticular number or facility. The telephone network 80, VoIP Gateway131, and IP Network 133 may also be coupled to the billing system 123.

[0102] Another component of the network 100 is an intelligentinformation translator (IIX) 125, which can be integrated with theintelligent presence gateway 105 or be implemented on a standaloneserver. The intelligent information translator 125 is applied forestablishing communications among calling party 101 employing voice overtelephone 102 and called party 137 who is using textual messaging viacalled party client 139. In some embodiments, the functions andcomponents of the voice-over-IP gateway 131 or the voice processingsystem 103 may be integrated with the intelligent information translator125.

[0103] Furthermore, the intelligent information translator 125, inresponse to interaction with the intelligent presence gateway 105,initiates and executes a speech-to-text process or thread 127 and atext-to-speech process or thread 129 for translating among speechsignals associated with the telephone connection and textual informationassociated with the instant messaging session.

[0104] As used herein, “speech” may, in a broader sense, also includenon-spoken audible signals such as tones, signals or sounds which havemeaning or significance that is commonly recognized or at least mutuallyagreed upon among communicating parties. For example, sounds oflaughter, musical tones, sound effects, DTMF signals or other familiaraudible sounds may communicate information or express thoughts andemotions. Embodiments of the present invention may advantageouslyinclude various aspects of recognizing, interpreting, and producing suchsounds as a way of enhancing communications among parties. One practicalapplication of this might be allowing a user of the system thatgenerates textual information to interact with a voice processing systemthat is accustomed to receiving DTMF tones as input.

[0105] In the discussion of IIX 125, “text” may refer to, for example,symbols, characters and representations of visual or tactile elementswhich may or may not be actual words according to a given written orspoken language. Thus, it should be understood that text-to-speechprocess 127 and speech-to-text process 129 may operate to convertto/from audible signals other than spoken words and to convert to/fromdata representing information other than words.

[0106] In the context of facilitating communications among one partyusing an instant communications client and another party using atelephonic connection, a novel aspect of the present teachings relatesto the manner in which symbols, known as “emoticons” and often appearingalong with textual information, may be used to convey emotions, thoughtsor impressions.

[0107] Because instant messaging sessions, especially chat sessions, mayuse a number of conventional abbreviations and so-called “emoticons”,the speech-to-text process 129 and text-to-speech process 127 may employspecial-purpose dictionaries (not shown) that list the properequivalents for performing conversion among speech and text or symbols.For example, the commonly used “LOL” may be translated to the spokenequivalent of “laughing out loud” or to a sound effect that sounds likelaughter. Dictionaries may be customizable to suit the preferences ofcommunicating parties using system 100.

[0108] IIX 125 may act to recognize sounds and render, in the conversionperformed by speech-to-text process 129, textual or symbolicrepresentations that correspond to the sounds according to someconventional or desired mapping. For example, the spoken words “laughout loud” or even the detection of sounds of laughter from one party mayevoke a textual “LOL” or the like which is conveyed to the other partywho is using a textual interface. Further, to aid such detection orprovide more deliberate control for communicating parties, IIX 125 maybe receptive to verbal commands and command delimiters indicating that asound or spoken utterance is to be interpreted according to this featurerather than interpreted as literal words. For example, a party may say“insert” or “emoticon” followed by a desired expression such as “laugh”,“frown”, “puzzled”, etc. Upon recognizing such a keyword, IIX 125 willinterpret adjacent sounds and, if possible, map the sounds detected intoappropriate symbols to be sent to another party. In addition to theinsertion of emoticons, IMT 70 may sense speech signal characteristicsand responsively cause rich text to be sent to the party who is using atextual interface. For example, soft spoken passages of speech may berepresented by small font size, light or italicized font type, lightfont color or a combination thereof. Loud or emphatic speech may berepresented by causing the corresponding text to be depicted in enlargedfont, bold type and/or bold or bright font colors. In addition tovolume, such textual rendering may be responsive to pitch or othercharacteristics.

[0109] In performing conversion, IIX 125 may be receptive to othersignals such as DTMF signals. While communicating through IIX 125, aparty using a telephone may be able to press digits on a dialing keypadto have specific emoticons or other symbols included in the textualoutput of the conversion module. For example, a “smiley face”representation may be sent to an instant communications user in responseto a telephony user entering a sequence such as “#8” or “486”, thelatter of which follows the shape of a smile on a standard 12-keytouch-tone keypad. DTMF tones may also be used to implement recognizablecommand delimiters in the context of the previous discussion.

[0110] In the course of converting speech and other audible signals intocorresponding symbols or text, IIX 125 may also perform translationamong different spoken and written languages or dialects or accents, forexample, converting English text to Spanish speech and vice-versa. Thedecision to invoke this type of conversion may be performed dynamicallyin response to input from the parties as the communications isestablished. Alternatively, language-related preferences orcompatibilities, such as choice of a language, dialect or accent,pertaining to one or both of the parties may be known or maintained in aprofile database or expressed by devices, such as called party client139, to affect how IIX 125 handles the communications. Spellings used intextual information translated from audio information may reflectlanguage differences or nationalities. For example, the spoken word“program” may be spelled as “programme” in the textual informationprovided to a British person. All such language-related conversionaspects may be provided as an option to users and, from a commercialstandpoint, may be offered at an additional charge to offset costs orprovide a profitable operation for a service provider.

[0111] As IIX 125 performs conversion, the manner in which each partyperceives the other party may be affected by the interaction through thetranslator. For example, a male party using an instant communicationsclient, such as called party client 139, will likely prefer that anysynthesized speech representing him to a telephony user be rendered in amale voice. Other aspects of speech rendering, such as approximatespeaker age, vocal characteristics, inflection and local dialect may bealterable or configurable and may be adjusted dynamically or accordingto, for example, a profile maintained for a given user in capabilitiesserver 117, for example. In some implementations, a party might elect touse a speech persona that is whimsical or that emulates thecharacteristics of a popular recognizable personality. Users may pay apremium to a service provider for the use of such custom services. Oneparty's preference or ability to converse in one or more languages maybe represented to the other party by a label or an icon, such as anational flag, appearing as part of a user interface. This preferenceinformation may be automatically obtained from stored profileinformation pertaining to the party.

[0112] Another aspect of how one party “experiences” another partyrelates to the identifying of the parties to one another, particularlyto the party who is using an instant communications client of somenature. In conducting messaging communications, for example, one partywill see chat messages coming from another party, the chat messageshaving actually been composed by speech-to-text process 129 based uponspeech input from the other party. The apparent screen name of theremote party may be subject to control dynamically during theestablishing of communications or may be affected by a profile of userpreferences consulted by system 10 in the course of providing thecommunications service. According to various implementations, thepresentation of remote user identity to the messaging user may comprisea screen name, an image or iconic representation, a sound bite or otherpresentable element. The manner in which a given party wants to bepresented to a remote party may be the subject of interaction with anoperator or interactive service providing system during or preparatoryto the establishment of communications involving the parties. A serviceprovider may optionally assess billable charges to one or both of theparties related to the provisioning, use or invocation of some of thesepresentation features.

[0113] IIX 125 may be controlled by or communicably coupled to either orboth of VPS 103, via connection 57, or IPG 105, via connection 58. Thetypes of communications that may take place through these connectionsare typified in the discussion of FIG. 2B. One aspect of controlinformation along connection 57 may relate to whether or not IIX 125 isto engage in communications involving called party client 139. Otheraspects affected by communication along connection 57 may relate to, forexample, port numbers by which other elements communicate withtranslating prcoesses or language models to be used for translation.Alternatively, engagement of IIX 125 may take place intrinsicallythrough commmunications along connections 42, 44, 46 or 48. IIX 125 maycomprise a controller 126 for performing control communications, such asalong connections 57 and 58, and generally for coordinating anynecessary allocation, configuration or the like pertaining to engagingprocesses 127, 129 in communications sessions through IIX 125.

[0114] Responsive to whether the called party will be using textualmessaging, IIX 125 may be invoked by coupling text input from receiverprocess 115 along connection 48 to text-to-speech process 127, whichconverts the text input to corresponding speech output and sends thespeech output, along connection 44 to ultimately reach calling party101. Likewise, speech input received from calling party 101 alongconnection 42 is converted by speech-to-text process 127 intocorresponding text output and passed, along connection 46, to senderprocess 113 to ultimately reach called party client 139.

[0115] Connections 42 and 44 may be said to be a “bearer channelinterface” referring to the bearing or carrying of user traffic asopposed to signaling and control information. Other elements in FIG. 1may be similarly viewed as having bearer channel interfaces.Furthermore, although connections 42 and 44 are shown as coupled to VPS103, it is conceivable that the coupling of connections 42 and 44 tocalling party 101 may involve one or more of VPS 103, bridging switch 54and telephone network 80. The nature of connections 42 and 44 may varyas well. Depending the degree to which IIX 125 may be integrated withVPS 103, connections 42 and 44 may be implemented along a data bus orlocal area network which carries data representing voice signals withinVPS 103.

[0116] Otherwise, connections 42 and 44 may resemble standard interfacessuch as Ti, ISDN PRI, or even analog 2-wire or 4-wire connections.Advantageously, connections 42 and 44 may be assigned to ports on thebridging switch 54 so that calling party 101 may be coupled to IIX 125without occupying resources of VPS 103. Speech signals to be translatedinto textual information may reach IIX 125 in a variety of forms.

[0117] A signaling interface, such as SIP user agent 56, optionallyadded to voice processing system 103 is shown to in communication with avoice-over-IP gateway 131 for establishing a voice call over apacket-switching network, such as IP network 133, using a protocol suchas Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) or H. 323. The voice-over-IPgateway 131 may also be in communication, directly or through VPS 103 orother elements, with the intelligent information translator 125 forproviding the voice input to the speech-to-text process 127 andreceiving voice output from the text-to-speech process 129. Variouscouplings between voice-over-IP gateway 131 and other elements may beconsidered a packet voice communications interface with respect tosystem 100. Furthermore, where system 100 is taken to include avoice-over-packet gateway or otherwise provide an interface directly toa packet data network, the interface so formed may also be referred toas a packet voice communications interface.

[0118] Those of ordinary skill in the relevant art will recognize thatthe various functional elements depicted in FIG. 1 may be combined orseparated in a variety of ways while still embodying the teachings ofthe present invention. For example, VPS 103 and IPG 105 may beseparately implemented and merely interfaced to one another.Alternatively, these may be fully integrated in a single element orinstallation to constitute a device for enabling call completion throughreal-time messaging communications. Either of these may also include IIX125 and its functions. Furthermore, a gateway device, such as VoIPgateway 131, may be integrated with any or all of these elements to forma composite device or system enabling communications among a telephoneuser and a instant communications client.

[0119] Any of the various possible combinations among elements may beimplemented in a platform suitably equipped with telephony interfaceequipment, communications switches, operator stations, and sufficientcomputing and digital signal processing resources to provide all therequisite functionality and interfaces described herein. For example, anarrangement suitable for implementing at least VPS 103 and perhaps otherelements of system 100 is described in the co-pending U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/096,938, especially with respect to FIGS. 1 and2 therein. Voice processing systems in general are well known in the artand it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill how a variety ofexisting systems and architectures may be modified in design to embodythe present invention.

[0120] In addition to calls carried over a conventional telephonenetwork 80, system 100 may also involve telephony class and othercommunications within a packet data network, such as IP (internetprotocol) network 133. An IP telephone 82 is shown coupled to IP network133 and may be used by a caller to originate a call to VPS 103. VPS 103may handle such a call similarly to what has been described for aconventional telephone call inbound from telephone network 80.

[0121] One technique for coordinating the establishment of telephonycalls and other types of communications sessions is called the SessionInitiation Prototol (SIP) and is described in documents such as RFC 3261of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). IP telephone 82 may be aSIP-compliant device. To establish a connection with VPS 103, IP phone82 may send a SIP ‘INVITE’ message to a SIP server 135, which serves arole in a SIP environment of determining how and where to send furtherSIP messages to achieve the connection requested from IP phone 82.Eventually, by the appropriate sequence of SIP messaging as is wellknown in the art, IP phone 82 may be connected to VPS 103 through avoice-over-packet gateway, such as voice-over-IP (VoIP) gateway 131.Connection 50 by which IP network 133 is coupled to VoIP gateway 131 maycomprise SIP signaling messages over a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) anddigitally encoded audio telephony signals sent via the RealtimeTransport Protocol (RTP).

[0122] A voice-over-packet gateway, such as VoIP gateway 131, is wellknown in the industry as a device for allowing communications amongdisparate types of networks. In particular, VoIP gateway 131 adaptssignaling and bearer channel communications in a telephone network tothe types of signaling and packetized data stream communications used ina packet telephony network.

[0123] IP telephone 82 may be connected to VPS 103 through IP network133 and VoIP gateway 131. A user of IP phone 82 may experience much thesame interaction with operator 52 as calling party 101 or called party137.

[0124] A user of IP phone 82 may be able to send and receive voicecommunications to IIX 125 in order to communicate with called party 137who is using a textual messaging interface at called party client 139.In this scenario, the speech communications among the IP phone 82 andthe IIX 125 may be carried along connection 38, which may be aconventional telephone circuit or TDM channel. Alternatively, VoIPgateway 131 may be coupled via connection 36 directly to IIX 125 tofacilitate such communications. Any of connections 36, 38 and 40 mayimplement a gateway control interface operable to cause VoIP gateway 131or the like to establish voice communications between a telephone 102 orIP phone 82 and called party client 139. It is also conceivable that IIX125 may provide, for example, an interface directly to IP network 133for directly supporting RTP connectivity. Additionally, any ofconnections 36, 38 and 40, as well as SIP user agent 56, may implement anetwork signaling interface operable to coordinate communicationsbetween parties in FIG. 1. Connections 36, 38 and 40 may also carryvoice communications to and from network 133 and may therefore implementa packet voice communications interface.

[0125] Aside from being involved in the connection of IP phone 82 to VPS103 just described, IP network 133 may participate in reaching calledparty client 139 by so-called “voice enabled chat.” Upon indication thatthe called party client 139 supports voice connections and that such avoice connection is indeed desired by the communicating parties, a voiceconnection may be established from calling party 101, through VPS 103 orbridging switch 54, through connection 38, VoIP gateway 131, IP network133 and connection 52 to called party client 139. The signal throughconnection 38 may be a conventional analog or TDM telephony signalwhereas the latter segments through IP network 133 may be RTPconnections through a packet data transport.

[0126] Those of ordinary skill will recognize that many variations arepossible in connections among elements, sequencing and flow of controlmessages, roles fulfilled by elements, inclusion of SIP user agentclients and user agent server interfaces into elements. For example, VPS103 may present an interface direct packet transport interface and/or aSIP interface without requiring gateway 131.

[0127] Furthermore, indications of activities or events within variouselements of FIG. 1 may be reported to billing system 123 for purposessuch as assessing usage charges to users, monitoring fraud activity orperforming traffic engineering. These indications of activities orevents may relate to a wide variety of events taking place elements inFIG. 1 and may be designed to occur at any point in the course ofproviding a service to one or more parties. Indications to billingsystem 123 may accompany other communications, such as controlcommunications occurring among elements in FIG. 1, and may reach billingsystem 123 via any number and combination of the connections andelements shown. Indications to billing system 123 may undergoprocessing, such as combining of related indications, by other elementsbefore being forwarded to billing system 123. Some or all of thefunction of billing system 123 may be integrated into or distributedamong other elements or functions depicted in FIG. 123. Any of theelements may be involved in also using billing system 123 verify whetherservice activity is to proceed based upon, for example, ability toobtain payment for providing the service.

Call Flows

[0128] Various call completion scenarios can occur within the networkillustrated in FIG. 1. FIGS. 2A through 5B are various example callflows depicting how elements of FIG. 1 may interact to handle a call invarious ways. The four call flows are similar in many ways but differ inthe following aspects:

[0129]FIGS. 2A and 2B describe what may occur as a calling party makescontact with VPS 103 and is connected to the called party's instantcommunications client through IIX 125. After communicating in thismanner for a period of time, the caller eventually disconnects the call.

[0130] In FIGS. 3A and 3B, the caller is connected to the called partythrough IIX in much the same way as in FIGS. 2A and 2B, but it is thecalled party who disconnects the call.

[0131] In FIGS. 4A and 4B, the caller disconnects the call with thecalled party but stays coupled to VPS 103 in order to “reoriginate”another call perhaps to a different called party.

[0132] In FIGS. 5A and 5B, the called party elects to use avoice-over-packet capability of their instant communications client toengage in voice communications with the calling party.

[0133] These call flows depicting control information and the like beingpassed among the functional elements of FIG. 1 are merely examples andare not intended to represent all of the interactions contemplated amongthese elements.

[0134] Calling party 101 may have different call experiences dependingon the how calling party reaches VPS 103, such as what telephone numberis dialed by the calling party to reach VPS 103. Various callexperiences are described in detail below in conjunction with FIGS. 7Athrough 9D. The main differences among the call experiences relate tohow the calling party invokes call completion to an instantcommunications client and whether such completion is offered as aprimary mode of completion or as a secondary mode of completion. Atypical sequence of interactions among elements will now be described inconjunction with FIGS. 2A and 2B. This sequence of interactions may berepresentative of several possible services or usage scenarios and, withminor variations, may be applicable to all of the call experiences thatwill be further described later.

[0135]FIGS. 2A and 2B together constitute a call flow illustratingpresence-based call completion wherein the call is eventually concludedby the calling party. Each arrow in the call flow of FIGS. 2A and 2Brepresents interaction of some nature between elements of FIG. 1. Theseactions are generally communications among elements which, depending onthe circumstances, may include, for example, vocal communications,textual communications, call setup signaling, control signals and eventnotifications.

[0136] In FIG. 2A, calling party 101, via telephone 102, places a callto, or otherwise becomes connected with, VPS 103. For example, callingparty 101 may dial a number corresponding to a collect call serviceimplemented by VPS 103. Calling party 101 may access VPS 103 for thepurpose of placing a collect call to called party 137.

[0137] The placing of the call to VPS 103 by calling party 101 isrepresented in FIG. 2A by action 201. Action 202 represents theanswering of the call by VPS 103, or an operator 52 therein (see FIG.1), and may comprise an audible greeting to the caller along with aprompt for the caller to provide input to specify the called party theywant to contact.

[0138] In action 203, the caller provides input about the called partythey are seeking. In scenarios other than a collect call, such as aprepaid calling card arrangement, action 203 may also entail the callerproviding a calling card number and a PIN number or otherwise providinginformation as to how the call is to be billed.

[0139] Action 204 may serve to notify billing system 123 that VPS 103,or generally system 100, is being accessed to provide service. Billingsystem 123 may note this indication as part of its role in assessingcharges for usage of the service. These charges may be billed to callingparty 101, to called party 137 or to some other account.

[0140] In action 204, VPS 103 may communicate with billing system 123 toverify the billing information which may have been provided by thecaller or obtained by other means such as a database look-up. Thebilling information may be associated with the called party, the callingparty, a third party account or some other account. In the case of acollect call, the billing information of the called party will likely bechecked. It is further possible that signaling information accompanyingthe inbound call or a line information database (LIDB) or profileinformation database may also be examined at this point to verify thecalled party's or calling party's ability to participate in collectcalls or whatever type of call is being requested.

[0141] If billing system 123 performs an authorization role as justdescribed, action 205 may represent the response from billing system 123indicating to VPS 103 whether or not the call completion or otherservice requested by calling party 101 may be performed. Assuming thisauthorization is granted, action 206 is then performed by VPS 103 or anoperator 52 therein.

[0142] Action 206 generally represents actions performed by theoperator, which may vary depending on what type of call or service hasbeen requested by calling party 101. In the present example of a collectcall, VPS 103 (an operator 52) may initiate a telephone call to calledparty 137 in the traditional manner by announcing the call to the calledparty and asking if the called party will accept the charges for thecall. In a particular instance, the called party 137 might not bereached by the operator or may decline the collect call. Action 207represents the operator informing calling party 101 that the attemptedcollect call cannot be completed at the present time.

[0143] In accordance with exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention, the operator may at this point offer calling party 101 theoption of attempting to engage in instant communications, such astextual chat, with the called party as an alternative to a telephoneconversation. Other alternatives, such as voice mail, may be offered aswell.

[0144] Action 208 represents the response of the calling party to theoperator's offer to use instant communications. Assuming the callingparty agrees to use instant communications, action 208 may be viewed asbeing essentially another request for service by calling party 101 toVPS 103.

[0145] To pursue the prospect of connecting calling party 101 withcalled party 137, VPS 103 solicits presence information from IPG 105 asrepresented by action 209. This request for presence information, aswell as the eventual response shown as action 217, may take place, forexample, through connection 10 shown in FIG. 1.

[0146] In accordance with one approach described earlier with respect tofetcher process 111, IPG 105 may request and obtain, in actions 211 and212 respectively, presence status information for the called party frompresence server 119. In the request to presence server 119, the calledparty may be specified by a chat screen name or other identifier bywhich the called party is known to presence server 119.

[0147] It should be noted that presence server 119 will usually havemaintained a presence state for called party 137 before the time ofpresence request 211 and often even before the calling party's initialcall (action 201) to VPS 103. Action 210 represents called party 137, ormore particularly called party client 139, notifying presence server 119of its availability state at some point prior to the requesting ofpresence information in action 211. This approach will often allowdetermining availability of called party 137 before contact is actuallyattempted with called party 137 or called party client 139.

[0148] As shown in actions 213 and 215, IPG 105 may also consultcapabilities server 117 to obtain information, such as preferences orcapabilities pertaining to called party 137 and/or calling party client139. For example, capabilities server 117 may return information as towhether called party client 139 supports voice-enabled chat and whethercalled party 137 generally prefers to use textual or voicecommunications.

[0149] After obtaining presence information and other information, IPG105 provides the information in a response to VPS 103 as represented byaction 217. Actions 209 through 217 represent a novel coupling of aninteractive voice processing system to a presence-determining functionin accordance with preferred embodiments of the present invention.

[0150] At this point VPS 103 may optionally involve billing system 123as shown in actions 219 and 221. For example, VPS 103 may determine,perhaps in response to information gleaned in actions 209-217, whetherfurther service should be performed based on the called party's abilityto pay or upon other determinations that may be made in conjunction withbilling system 123.

[0151] In practice, many such factors may be considered in determiningwhether calling party 101 may ultimately establish communications withcalled party client 139. Making this determination may involve, forexample, obtaining, from a presence server, presence state informationpertaining to the second party, contacting the second party andobtaining an indication from the second party as to the acceptance ofinstant communications, determining whether the first party is eligibleto establish instant communications with the second party, determiningwhether the second party is eligible to receive instant communicationsfrom the first party, and determining whether the first party desires toestablish communications with the second party using instantcommunications. Depending on implementation, various ones of thesefactors may be applied by billing sytem 123 or by other elements in thecourse of service processing.

[0152] In action 223, VPS 103 may inform calling party 101 that calledparty 137 may be accessible via instant communications. In action 223,or separately in action 225, VPS 103 may request confirmation fromcalling party 101 that they indeed wish to proceed with instantcommunications with the called party. In action 225 VPS 103 may alsosolicit the preferences of calling party 101 in terms of whether to usetextual chat or voice if supported by the called party client 139. Aspart of action 225, the operator may ask how the calling party 101prefers to be identified to the called party 137. The response bycalling party 101 to these prompts is shown by action 227.

[0153] Referring now to FIG. 2B, it may be seen that, having determinedthat the calling party desires chat and that the calling party appearsto be capable of engaging in chat, VPS 103 proceeds to contact calledparty 137 and invite them to converse with calling party 101. VPS 103,via IPG 105 and IM server 121 as depicted by actions 229 and 231 and233, initiates a dialog with called party 137, or particularly thecalled party client 139 being used by called party 137. In action 229,VPS 103 may include a message such as “Roger is calling from a phone andwould like to chat with you. Can you chat now?”

[0154] Action 233 represents a session initation to establish instantmessaging communications with called party 137 and action 235 representsthe acceptance of the session. Action 237 is an instant message toreceived by the calling party containing the aforementioned “Can youchat now?” invitation.

[0155] Called party 137 provides a response to the invitation in action239 which, through actions 241 and 243, reaches VPS 103. At this point,billing system 123 may optionally be informed of the acceptance ofcalled party 137 as evidenced by action 245. For example, in someimplementations, this event may be significant to billing system 123 asrepresenting the commencement of billable usage by the parties.

[0156] As shown by action 247, billing system 123 may also be involvedin authorizing further action to connect the parties. In some scenarios,part of action 245 may include the passing of information obtained fromcalled party 137, such as billing account information or authorizationcodes, so that billing system 123 can take such information intoaccount. In action 249, VPS 103 may inform calling party 101 by voicethat they are about to engage in a telephony-to-instant-communicationssession with the called party. VPS 103 may also convey any instructionsabout how to participate in the session. Likewise, VPS 103 may alsoprovide a connection notification, action 255, comprising a textualmessage telling called party 137 about the impending commencement of thesession.

[0157] Optionally, actions 249 and 251 may give rise to correspondingconfirmations 253 and 255. These optional confirmations may be desirableif, for example, charges for the session or other aspects of theconnection must be approved by either or both of the parties. Billingrelated actions 245 and 247 shown earlier may optionally be performedafter, and responsive to, these confirmations.

[0158] As shown by action 257, VPS 103 then requests IPG 105 toestablish a session between the parties. This session, between callingparty 101 using a telephony connection and called party 137 using aninstant communciations client, involves engaging intelligent informationtranslator 125 to perform substantially real-time conversion amongspeech signals and textual information.

[0159] Accordingly, IPG 105 sends a media channel request, in action259, to the intelligent information translator 125, which allocates theneeded resources for a speech-to-text process 127 and a text-to-speechprocess 129. This may involve reserving ports, allocating memory, andinitiating new processes. The result of this allocation is sent back tothe intelligent presence gateway 105 as a media channel response shownas action 261. This response may include identifiers, port numbers orother information involved in coordinating communications establishmentthrough IIX 125.

[0160] Upon successful allocation of a media channel, the intelligentinformation translator 125 connects the calling party 101 to the mediachannel, enabling voice channel connectivity as represented by action263. On the called party end, the intelligent information translator 125establishes a chat or other instant communications session with thecalled party 137 via the sender and receiver processes 127, 129 and theinstant messaging server 121, and binds the instant message session tothe media channel. This instant communications connection, representedby action 265, may be achieved by having IIX 125 take up the same IMsession established with the called party 137 in action 231. In thismanner, called party 137 experiences continuity of the one sessionrather than having to separately establish a session for conversing withthe calling party 101. At this point, calling party 101 and called party137 are in communication with one another.

[0161] As the conversation proceeds, speech recognition algorithms areapplied by the speech-to-text process 127 to convert utterances in thespeech of the calling party 101 into a textual or character-basedrepresentation that is transmitted to the called party 137 via thesender process 113 and the instant messaging server 121. Conversely,text messages comprising words, abbreviations, and so-called “emoticons”received from the called party 137 via the instant messaging server 121and the receiver process 115 are converted into a speech representationof the words by the text-to-speech process 129. The resulting speechsignals may be transmitted to the calling party 101 via thevoice-over-IP gateway 131 or through connection 44, VPS 103, bridgingswitch 54 or other means. Speech-to-text process 127 may employ any ofthe well known speech recognition technologies available from companiessuch as Nuance, SpeechWorks, IBM, or Dragon Systems, for example.Text-to-speech process 129 may use DECtalk™ speech synthesis technologydeveloped by Digital Equipment Corporation, for example. Thistranslation may also be performed manually by a human operator listeningto the utterances via a headset and typing in the text in one direction,and reading the text on a screen and providing a spoken representationin the other direction.

[0162] Communications among the parties proceeds in this manner throughIIX 125 until the parties are finished communicating or until a balanceof a billable account is exhausted. For example, at some point duringthe call, the calling party 101 may wish to terminate the call. This mayoccur by hanging up of the telephone used by the calling party 101. Thisaction results in a termination request, action 267, being sent from thecalling party 101 to VPS 103. In practice, this termination request maybe conveyed as telephony signaling, for example. In someimplementations, VPS 103 may confirm the termination by sending atermination response, action 269, to the calling party 101.

[0163] VPS 103 sends termination notification, action 271, to the calledparty 137 via the intelligent presence gateway 105 and the instantmessaging server 121. As represented by action 273, VPS 103 may transmita service event to billing system 123 as the session is ended.Intelligent presence gateway 105 may also provide a session event,action 275, to the billing system 123. Actions 273 and/or 275 may bepeformed so that usage activity may accurately reported upon and chargescan be accurately calculated.

[0164] As with all of the calls flows in FIGS. 2A-5B, the sequence ofevents depicted in FIGS. 2A and 2B are intended to be merelyillustrative and should not be construed to be the only manner in whichthe present invention may be embodied. Many of the actions shown may beaugmented by other actions, omitted, or performed in a differentsequence or among different elements than as shown. For example, VPS 103could participate in engaging IIX 125 directly rather than having IPG105 do so. Furthermore, according to an alternative approach, aspects ofcall termination and billing notifications may be performed by IIX 125,especially considering that IIX 125 is actively engaged in the sessionuntil it is concluded.

[0165] Termination of communications may also occur other than as shownin FIGS. 2A-2B. For example, the called party 137 may signal terminationby ending the instant messaging session or providing some otherindication as may be appropriate in a particular implementation. Thisscenario is shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B. In FIGS. 3A and 3B, the stepsstarting from the initial voice call 301 in FIG. 3A through theestablishment of the voice call 363 and instant message 365 occur assubstantially described with respect to steps 201 through 265hereinabove in FIGS. 2A and 2B, with some details ommitted forsimplicity. However, in this called party termination scenario, thecalled party 137 sends a termination request, action 367, triggered bythe ending of the session, to IIX 125 or, depending on implementation,to the voice processing system 103 via the instant messaging server 121and the intelligent presence gateway 105. The voice processing system103 (or IIX 125) confirms the termination by sending a terminationresponse, action 369, to the called party 137 via the intelligentpresence gateway 105 and the instant messaging server 121, and bysending a termination notification 371 to the calling party 101. Asbefore, the voice processing system 103 transmits a service event 373 tothe billing system 123, and the intelligent presence gateway 105transmits session event 375 to the billing system 123.

[0166]FIGS. 4A and 4B illustrate a call re-origination scenario, inwhich the calling party 101 indicates a desire to make another callwithout hanging up or reentering the billing information, for example bypressing the pound key (#) on a telephone keypad for two (2) seconds. Inthis scenario, the steps starting from the initial voice call 401 inFIG. 4A to the establishment of communications among the partiesrepresented by actions 463 and 465 are substantially as described withrespect to steps 201-275 presented above in FIGS. 2A and 2B. However,during the ‘call’, the calling party 101 makes the re-originationrequest 477 which is detected by VPS 103, perhaps via bridging switch54. In response, the connection to called party 137 is terminated asshown by action 471, which is optional and may include, for example, atextual notification of the termination for the benefit of called party137. Actions 473 and 475 inform billing system 123 of the conclusion ofthe session. Then the operator at VPS 103 offers new service options asshown by action 479. The calling party 101 submits a new service optionrequest 481, which is handled by VPS 103 by taking appropriate steps483. If the calling party 101 wishes another instant message basedcommunication, then the steps described herein above may be repeated.The interaction just described for VPS 103 may involve or be performedentirely by IIX 125 as well.

[0167] In another embodiment of the present invention, instantcommunications is used initially to contact the called party 137 forobtaining billing and capabilities information, but the call is actuallythen terminated in a voice-over-IP session at the option of the calledparty 137.

[0168]FIGS. 5A and 5B illustrate the operation of this embodiment, inwhich steps 501-543 (transmission of the session response 543 from theintelligent presence gateway 105 to the voice processing system 103)proceed as substantially described with respect to corresponding steps201-243. However, operator 52 at voice processing system 103 may detectthat the called party client 139 is capable of voice-over-IP based onthe information in the capability information response 515. Analternative to the process of obtaining information from capabilitiesserver 117 may be to query the called party client 139 directly using,for example, SIP mechanisms for exploring client capabilities. Inresponse the operator may send an instant message 545 to the calledparty 137 via the intelligent presence gateway 105 and the instantmessaging server 121. Instant message 545 may ask the called party toselect which capability, voice or text, the called party prefers to use.In reply, the called party 137 returns an instant message 547 thatconfirms that the voice-over-IP capability of the called party client139 is to be used. This can happen at any time during the communicationsession.

[0169] After interaction with the billing system 123 using billingrequest 549 and billing response 551, the operator at VPS 103 sends theintelligent presence gateway 105 a session establishment request 553. Inresponse, the intelligent presence gateway 105 sends a session andchannel request 555 to the voice-over-IP gateway 131, which establishesa voice-over-IP session with the called party client 139. A session andchannel response 557 is then sent from the called party client 139 tothe intelligent presence gateway 105. The intelligent presence gateway105 then sends a session establishment response 559 to VPS 103.

[0170] To complete the establishment of the call, VPS 103 provides aconnection notification 561 to the calling party 101, and a connectionnotification 563 to the called party 137 via the voice-over-IP gateway131. In return, the calling party 101 provides a connection confirmation565 to VPS 103 and the called party 137 provides a connectionconfirmation 567 to VPS 103 via the voice-over-IP gateway 131. At thispoint, the voice-over-IP gateway 131 interfaces a voice call leg 569with the calling party 101 and a voice-over-IP call leg 571 with thecalled party client 139. These requests, responses, notifications, andconfirmations may be carried out using computer generated messages orusing human-intelligible voice prompts and Dual Tone Multi-Frequency(DTMF or “touch tone”) or spoken responses.

[0171] Upon conclusion of the call, the call between the calling party101 and the called party 137 is torn down in steps 573-581 substantiallyas described herein above with respect to steps 267-275 in FIG. 2B.

[0172] In the preceding description of FIGS. 2A-5B, billing system 123was shown to participate in collecting information indicative of usageactivity in the communcations system and in authorizing activity basedon whether such activity could be paid for in some manner. It should benoted that various elements in FIG. 1 may report a variety ofindications to billing system 123 indicating usage of the system whichmay be billable. The billing system may note these occurrences anddetermine charges associated with the usage. Furthermore, as depicted inFIGS. 2A-2B and others, billing system 123 may also participate inauthorization or metering of activity in the system based upon whether avalid account exists to which charges may be applied.

[0173] Some types of activity or events in the system relate toinvocation of certain actions or features for which charges may beapplicable. For example, a calling party (or some other entity to bebilled) might be charged for each time they contact the system, eachtime they use the system to verify presence status for a called party orfor each attempt to establish instant communications with a calledparty. A calling party might also incur fees for having the system map afirst identifier, such as a telephone number, to a second identifier,such as an instant messaging screen name.

[0174] A calling party might be charged differently for invocation oftextual messaging versus voice communications. A calling party might becharged a fee each time a translator is engaged to enabletelephony-to-instant-communications call completion. A calling party mayeven be charged for requesting information about the balance on anaccount.

[0175] Other types of activity in the system may relate to quantifyingusage of system resources. For example, charges may be applied basedupon a time duration of a communications session, a volume of data ortraffic handled by the system, or a quantity of translation performed.

[0176] A third possibility for billable activity in the system relatesto options and features and subscribed services. Options or features mayrelate to class of service provided by the system or to customizability.In particular, parties using the system might pay extra to control thetranslator function in ways such as selecting languages to be usedduring translation, providing support for ‘emoticons’ or selecting voicecharacteristics to properly represent the gender or othercharacteristics of the party who is using textual messaging, orestablishing of common phrases, utterances, or signals including, forexample, one or more DTMF signals to signify meaning and thereforeenhance communications. Another option that might be billable isautomatic notification of balance or charges as a party uses the system.In this third category, it is likely that the billing system mostlyserves to authorize activity based upon options selected by the userand/or the status of an account that is to pay for the options.

[0177] Referring now to FIGS. 7A through 9D, three processes are showndepicting three different call experiences that might be provided to acalling party by the system of FIG. 1.

[0178] It should be noted at the outset that processes 700, 800 and 900are merely illustrative and not intended to limit the ways in which thepresent invention may be realized. Many adaptations and variations arepossible. For example, throughout processes 700, 800 and 900, theinvolvement of billing determinations may occur at any juncture in theservice processing subject to how one desires to have the systemoperate. In actual practice, the offering of alternative modes ofcommunication, the soliciting of information from a party and theretrieval of information from databases and such may differ in detailsand in sequence from what is shown in these examples without affectingthe spirit and scope of the present invention.

[0179] Furthermore, at points where these processes may involvedetermining, for example, preferences of the communicating parties orbilling information, such information may be obtained from a database,such as capabilities server 117, so that user profile informationreplaces or augments user input. In other words, it is possible forconfigurable profile information associated with a party to bemaintained in a database or the like and to be applied to automatingsome aspects of how system 100 provides service to calling party 101 andcalled party 137. For example, called party 137 may desire to have allinbound calls diverted to called party client 139 during certain timesof day. This preference information may reside in capabilities server117 or elsewhere and may be automatically retrieved and applied in, forexample, steps 710 and 714 described below. Called party 137 may havebilling information or preferences similarly maintained in a databaseaccessible to system 100 so that any steps requiring billing input areautomatically carried out without requiring input from the called party.

[0180] In general, the manner and sequence in which the activities ofprocesses 700, 800 and 900 may be controlled by profile informationassociated with parties using system 100. Service processing may also beaffected by coupling to other systems or elements that maintain and useservice-affecting profile information. For example, SIP server 135 maymaintain profile information relating to called party 137 or calledparty client 139. Intelligent presence gateway 105 may coordinate withSIP server 135 so that features such as “Find me—Follow me” implementedin a SIP-controlled environment may be carried out in coordination withother aspects of system 100.

[0181] In accordance with a first call experience, a calling partyreaches the voice processing system 103 by telephone with the originalintent of reaching a called party by telephone connection. For example,the calling party may dial “1-800-COLLECT” as they would normally do touse VPS 103 to place a collect call to the called party. The systemproceeds to process the collect call as usual. If the call cannot becompleted in this manner, then, in accordance with the presentteachings, the system investigates the possibility of connecting thecalling party to the called party via instant communications. Thisscenario is described below in conjunction with FIGS. 7A-7D.

[0182] In accordance with a second call experience, the calling partyreaches the voice processing system by calling a specific telephone,such as “1-800-GET-CHAT”, for the express purpose of initiating instantcommunications with the called party. This scenario is described belowin conjunction with FIGS. 8A-8D.

[0183] In accordance with a third call experience, the calling partydirectly calls the called party by telephone in the usual manner. Whenit is detected that the called party telephone is busy or ringingwithout being answered, the calling party is connected to the voiceprocessing system so that the caller may be offered alternative ways ofreaching the called party.

[0184] In FIGS. 7A through 7D, a process 700 is depicted whereby anenhanced services system may offer a caller an option of communicatingto an instant communications client of a called party in accordance withan exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Process 700particularly illustrates a variety of alternatives and conditional stepsin accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

[0185] Referring to FIG. 7A, process 700 commences at step 702 upon acaller calling a voice processing system, such as by calling party 101contacting an operator 52 or other interactive respondent within voiceprocessing system 103. Next, in step 704, the caller specifies to theoperator a particular called party that the caller desires to contact.For example, the called party may be specified by name or by phonenumber, if known. In the case of an automated or semi-automated responsesystem, the caller may provide the called party information via DTMFtones or by other transmission of signals, perhaps even by speaking intoa speech recognizing system that can determine the name or number databeing conveyed by the caller.

[0186] Proceeding to step 706, the operator validates the caller'srequest by, for example, ensuring the caller has expressed a validtelephone number according to the North American Numbering Plan. Ofcourse, the validation may be performed automatically especially if, forexample, the telephone number of the called party is input as DTMF tonesor other signals from the caller in step 704. The validating step 706may comprise validating the authority of the caller to access specifictypes of services offered via voice processing system 103. Validationstep 706 may also comprise ensuring that the operator clearlyunderstands what is intended by the caller. Ways of handling inboundcalls that fail to be validated are well known or easily foreseen bythose of ordinary skill in the relevant art and so are not elaboratedupon here.

[0187] Assuming that, in step 706, the caller's request is valid, thenprocess 700 continues at step 708 wherein the operator attempts to reachthe called party by telephone, as represented called party phone 138 inFIG. 1. Thus far, process 700 is similar to the placement of a collectcall. In step 710, it is determined whether the operator has beensuccessful in establishing contact with the called party or at leastwith someone who has answered the telephone. If successful contact hasbeen made, then execution proceeds to step 716 to determine if theanswering party will accept the call. Typically, in the case of acollect call, the identity of the caller will be announced to the calledparty and the operator or voice processing system will ask the calledparty if they will accept the call (along with the charges for the call,if applicable).

[0188] If the caller accepts the call in step 716, then, in step 718,the caller is connected to the called party and usage-based billing maycommence. Once the call is established, the operator is no longer neededon the line and, in practice, the connections, operator(s) and otherresources employed within the services platform to initiate the call arereleased. In FIG. 1, for example, bridging switch 54 may typically beused to keep phones 102 and 138 connected, while allowing VPS 103 todisengage via a well-known release link trunk 55 coupling telephonecircuits between bridging switch 54 and VPS 103. (For reference, one mayconsult U.S. Pat. No. 5,787,150 which shows a bridging switch anddescribes typical operation of a release link trunk.) Accordingly, then,after establishing the connection among parties in step 718, process 700(following label ‘D’) proceeds to step 770 (FIG. 7D) causing theoperator to be disengaged from the bridging switch. Process 700 thenterminates, having successfully connected the parties and effectivelyhandling the caller's request to contact the called party.

[0189] Returning to step 710, if the operator could not reach the calledparty by phone, then execution proceeds to step 712 wherein the operatorinforms the caller that the called party could not be reached by phone.Next, in step 713, the operator explores whether ther are any other waysthat the caller might communicate with the called party, such as byinstant messaging or by depositing a voice mail message. The operator'sexploration of other possibilities allows the operator to presentappropriate options to the caller and may entail checking databases tosee if, for example, the caller or called party are subscribed tovarious service options, such as voicemail, chat call completion,paging, etc., accessible to the operator.

[0190] In step 714, then, based on the operator's findings, adetermination is made as to whether a chat session of some sort is aviable alternative by which the caller might communicate with the calledparty. If instant communications, such as textual chat, is a viablealternative, then process 700 continues to step 720 (FIG. 7B) and othersteps to attempt to establish communications between the parties throughan instant communications mechanism.

[0191] Specifically, in step 720, it is determined whether the operatoralready has access to information by which to contact the party throughinstant communications, such as by a chat interface. For example, it isconceivable that the operator may have access to a database mappingtelephone numbers or personal names to “screen names” used to identifyparties in an instant messaging system. On the other hand, the operatormay not have such information and may have to solicit input from thecaller. Thus, in step 720, if the operator does not have access tosufficient information to reach the called party by instant messaging,then step 722 is performed wherein the operator makes known to thecaller that alternatives, such as chat, may be available and theoperator asks the caller for contact information, if known. In step 724,if the caller wants to attempt a chat session as an alternative thenexecution proceeds to step 726, wherein the caller provides contactinformation by which the operator may attempt to reach the called partyby chat or instant messaging. In step 728, the operator uses the contactinformation obtained in step 726 to then determine if the called partyis presently available through a chat system. Referring to FIG. 1, thisaction might be represented by VPS 103 requesting presence informationfrom watcher process 109 or fetcher process 111 over connection 10. As acalled party logs onto client 137, client 137 may register its presencewith presence server 119, making the communications status of client 137available to watcher process 109 or fetcher process 111.

[0192] If, in step 728, it is determined that the called party is notpresent or unavailable through a chat session, then, in step 730, theoperator informs the caller that the called party is not accessible bychat and execution proceeds, via the connector labeled ‘C’, to step 760to possibly provide other alternatives as will be described in greaterdetail below.

[0193] Likewise, if, in step 724, it is determined that the caller doesnot want to try a chat session, then execution also proceeds to step 760as described below.

[0194] Otherwise, if in step 728, it is determined that the called partyis present and available via chat, then execution proceeds, followingthe connector labeled ‘B’, to step 740 of FIG. 7C to attempt a chatsession with the called party as will be described shortly.

[0195] Returning to step 720, if the operator does have chat informationfor the called party without need of receiving same from the caller,then execution moves to step 732 to determine if the called party ispresent, using a similar manner to that described in step 728. If thecalled party is not present, then optionally, in step 733, the operatorinforms the caller that the party is inaccessible by chat. Thereafter,execution proceeds, following the connector labeled ‘C’ to step 760 topossibly provide other alternatives as will be described in greaterdetail below.

[0196] Otherwise, in step 732, if the party is available, then in step734, the operator offers the caller the option of engaging in chatcommunications with the called party. In step 736, if the callerdeclines to use the chat alternative, then execution proceeds, followingthe connector labeled ‘C’, to step 760 to possibly provide otheralternatives as will be described in greater detail below.

[0197] If, on the other hand, the caller does elect to try a chatsession in step 736, then process 700 continues, following along theconnector labeled ‘B’, to step 740 of FIG. 7C to attempt a chat sessionwith the called party.

[0198] In FIG. 7C, process 700 continues with attempting to establish achat session between the caller and the called party. At step 740,coming from either steps 728 or 736, the operator performs a preparatorystep in obtaining information from the caller as to how they wish to beannounced to the called party. In step 742, the operator contacts thecalled party (or “callee”) and invites the callee to participate in achat session with the caller. In this invitation, the operatorintroduces the caller using the announcement information obtained instep 740.

[0199] In step 744, the called party's response to the invitation isdetermined and if the invitation is declined, then execution proceeds,following the connector labeled ‘C’, to step 760 to possibly provideother alternatives as will be described in greater detail below.

[0200] Otherwise, if the called party accepts the chat invitation instep 744, then step 746 is executed to determine if the called partyclient supports voice communications (voice-enabled chat). This may bedetermined by retrieving profile information from, for example, thecapabilities server 117 or by directly querying the called party 137 orcalled party client 139. If so, then execution proceeds to step 750wherein the operator asks the called party if they would prefer toengage in voice chat or use text-based chat. In step 752, the calledparty responds by electing either text or voice. If the callee selects atextual session, then execution proceeds with step 748 wherein a textchat session is established between the parties through a voice/texttranslator (see translator 125) and billing for the session, ifapplicable, is initiated. Step 748 is also undertaken if the calledparty client is found to not support voice sessions in step 746.

[0201] Returning to step 752, if the callee elects to engage in voicecommunications through a voice-enabled chat session, then, in step 754,the parties are connected to carry on voice communications. Referring toFIG. 1, this may be represented by connecting the calling party phone101 through voice processing system 103 or bridging switch 54 to VoIPgateway 131. This connection is completed by an RTP data connectionthrough IP network 133 to called party client 139. This connection maybe established by SIP signaling among SIP user agent 56, VoIP gateway131 and SIP server 135, or by using H.323-type protocols or othersuitable mechanisms.

[0202] Whether a voice connection as in step 754 or a textual chatsession as in step 748 ensues, execution then proceeds, along theconnector labeled ‘D’, to step 770 wherein the operator is disengagedfrom the “call” and then the handling of the caller's original requestis concluded in step 772.

[0203] Referring to FIG. 7D, many determinations in process 700 mayresult in execution of step 760, generally when attempts to establishtelephone or chat messaging to a party have been unsuccessful. In step760, it is determined if there are yet other alternatives forcommunicating to the called party, such as paging or voice mail. If not,then in step 768, the caller is informed that the called party is notreachable by any further means beyond what may have already been offeredto the caller. Processing then proceeds to step 770 to decouple thecaller from the operator which, in this instance, essentiallydisconnects the caller.

[0204] If the condition tested in step 760 is found to be true, then, instep 762, such alternatives indicated as available in step 760 areoffered to the caller by the operator. In step 764, it is determinedwhether the caller elects to use an alternative so offered. If so, thenstep 766 is performed wherein the caller is ‘connected’ in a sense tothe alternative, meaning that the caller may be forwarded to a voicemail system or become coupled to a paging application, to name a fewexamples. Returning to step 764, if the caller elects not to use offeredalternatives, then processing continues at step 770 to essentiallydisconnect the operator from the caller.

[0205] FIGS. 8A-8D depict a process 800 whereby a caller may contact anenhanced services system to establish communications to a messagingclient of a called party in accordance with an exemplary embodiment ofthe present invention.

[0206] In FIG. 8A, process 800 commences in step 802 when a callercontacts a voice processing system for the purpose of establishing achat session with a “called party.” In contrast to the scenariodescribed in process 700 wherein the party initially desired toestablish a telephone call, process 800 relates to the caller preferringat the outset to establish a chat session with the called party. Thecaller might place a telephone call to a “1-800-GET-CHAT” telephonenumber, for example, to signify to the communications system the intentor desire to preferably establish communications via the instantcommunications client. Where the VPS 103 supports both process 700 andprocess 800, the number dialed by the caller to reach the system, or thetrunk group by which the call comes to the system, may be used todifferentiate handling of the call. The communications system mayaccordingly, act first to establish contact via a instant communicationsclient in preference to other forms of communication that may beavailable.

[0207] Upon the caller reaching the system in step 802, an operator,either manual or automatic or a combination thereof, is connected to thecaller and, in step 804, obtains information from the caller about theparty they are trying to reach by chat. The operator may also collectother information such as account information to which the use of thesystem may be billed. In step 806, the operator validates at least thecontact information provided by the caller and then verifies whether theparty is present on a messaging system and determines capabilities forthe destination party. Referring to FIG. 1, operator 52 may cause VPS103 to obtain timely presence information from fetcher process 111 orwatcher process 109 representing the available status of called partyclient 139.

[0208] In step 808, it is determined, based on the inquiry of step 806,whether or not the called party is present via a chat messaging client.If presence is not detected, then process 800 continues with step 816wherein the operator informs the caller that the called party is notaccessible, at least not by chat. Thereafter, process 800 continues,following the connector labeled ‘A’, to step 820 to offer the caller theoption of placing a telephone call, as will be described in greaterdetail below.

[0209] Returning to step 808, if it is determined that the called partyis present and available via chat messaging, then process 800 continueswith step 810 wherein the operator obtains information proceeds toestablish a chat session between the caller and the called party. Instep 810, the operator performs a preparatory step in obtaininginformation from the caller as to how they wish to be announced to thecalled party. In step 812, the operator contacts the called party (or“callee”) and invites the callee to participate in a chat session withthe caller. In this invitation, the operator introduces the caller usingthe announcement information obtained in step 810.

[0210] Then, in step 814, the operator determines whether the calleeaccepts the offered chat communications. If not, then step 816 isperformed wherein the operator informs the caller that the called partyis not accessible, at least not by chat. Thereafter, process 800continues, following the connector labeled ‘A’, to step 820 to offer thecaller the option of placing a telephone call as will be described ingreater detail below.

[0211] Returning to step 814, if the caller does accept the invitationto communicate with the caller via chat, then process 800 continues,following the connector labeled ‘B’, to step 840 (FIG. 8C) to initiatethe chat session.

[0212] Referring to FIG. 8C, step 840 involves the operator determiningwhether or not the called party messaging client supports voicecommunications. If not, then a textual chat session is the only optionfor communicating with the called party and process 800 continues atstep 850 wherein the operator or the service provider system verifieshow the ensuing chat session will be billed, if applicable. As withother types of services, billing arrangements may include sucharrangements as subscription, collect calling, prepaid calling,third-party pays, billing to credit card, etc.

[0213] Once any necessary billing arrangements are made in step 850,then, in step 852, the operator causes the parties to be connectedtogether through a two-way voice/text translator and billing, ifapplicable, is initiated. This connection may be achieved in a mannerdescribed earlier in conjunction with FIG. 1 and FIG. 2B. Afterconnecting in step 852, then process 800 proceeds, following theconnector labeled ‘D’ to disengage the operator from the call in step870. In this scenario, the VPS 103 may remain connected to the bridgingswitch and provide pass through to IIX 125. Alternatively, IIX 125 maybe assigned some ports on the bridging switch and once the connection ismade, the operator of VPS 103 may be released from the call.

[0214] Returning to step 840, if the callee's messaging client is foundto support voice communications, then process 800 continues executionwith step 842 wherein the operator asks the callee to select avoice-enabled chat session or a textual chat session.

[0215] In step 844, the callee's selection is determined and affectswhether a voice session is established or textual chat session isestablished, the latter via steps 850 and 852 as already described. Ifthe callee selects voice-enabled chat in step 844, then process 800proceeds with step 846 to secure any necessary billing arrangements andthen step 848 to establish the voice chat connection. Referring to FIG.1, this connection may involve, for example, one or more of VPS 103,bridging switch 54, VoIP gateway 131 and IP network 133. After makingthe connection, process 800 proceeds, following the connector labeled‘D’, to disengage the operator from the call in step 870.

[0216] Referring now to FIG. 8B, steps 820 through 832 relate tooffering the caller an option of placing a telephone call to the calledparty in lieu of the chat session the caller originally desired. Thisoption may be available to some types of service providers who offertelephony services or have business arrangements through telephoneservice providers.

[0217] In step 820, the operator offers the caller the option of tryingto reach the called party by telephone, responsive to the previousattempt to chat with the called party having been unsuccessful.

[0218] In step 822, the caller's preference for a telephone call isdetermined. If the caller declines to try a telephone connection withthe called party, then process 800 proceeds, following the connectorlabeled ‘C’, to explore other alternatives by which the caller might beable to communicate with the called party.

[0219] Otherwise, if, in step 822, the caller elects to try reaching thecalled party by phone, then, in step 824, the operator obtainsinformation as to how the call is to be billed and then places the callto the called party.

[0220] In step 826, a determination is made as to whether or not thecallee answers the phone and accepts any applicable charges, such as ina collect call scenario. If the called party, answers and otherwiseaccepts the call, then steps 832, 870 and 872 are performed to connectthe call and begin billing, if applicable, disconnect the operator fromthe call and conclude the processing of process 800 in fulfillment ofthe caller's request.

[0221] Returning to step 826, if the called party does not answer, oranswers and declines the call from the operator, then in step 830, theoperator informs the caller that the callee is unavailable by phone.Thereafter, process 800 proceeds, following the connector labeled ‘C’,to explore other alternatives by which the caller might be able tocommunicate with the called party.

[0222] With reference now to FIG. 8D, steps 860 through 866 relate todetermining if yet other alternatives may be offered to the caller forcommunicating with the called party. Such alternatives might includevoice mail, paging, e-mail transcription, etc.

[0223] In step 860, the operator examines other such possibilities basedon communications alternatives available to the operator through system103 or based upon services for which the parties may be configured orsubscribed. If no alternatives are available then, in step 868, thecalled party is declared unreachable and the operator will likely notifythe caller that no further options remain. The session between callerand operator will then terminate, at least by the action of step 870,and then process 800 is concluded in step 872.

[0224] If at least one alternative is found available in step 860, thenin step 862, the operator offers such alternative(s) to the caller. Instep 864, if the caller elects an alternative, then the operatorconnects the caller to, or otherwise invokes, the alternative in step866. In the caller declines any remaining alternatives presented in step862, then the decision step 864, bypasses step 866 and proceeds directlyto terminate the call, perhaps after a “bye” from the operator. Once thecaller's selection is made in step 864 and any appropriate alternativeis invoked, then the operator is disconnected from the caller in step870 and then process 800 is concluded in step 872.

[0225] FIGS. 9A-9D describe a process 900 whereby a caller places atelephone call directly to a desired called party and, when the callgoes unanswered or is otherwise configured to receive alternativeprocessing, the call is diverted to a voice processing system to offerthe caller messaging and other alternatives by which to reach the samecalled party.

[0226] Process 900 begins with step 902 upon the system detecting orreceiving indication that a telephone call has gone unanswered. It isalso conceivable that another system, such as telephone network 80, maydetect the unanswered call and merely redirect the call to VPS 103.Methods by which a system may detect or be informed of a ‘no answer’event are known in the industry. This is evidenced among local exchangecarriers in the United States, such as Qwest CommunicationsInternational, Inc., who perform a feature whereby, when a telephonegoes unanswered after several rings, an automated voice prompt bridgesonto the line and offers, for a fee, to continue trying to reach thecalled party and to ring the caller's telephone when the called partyeventually answers. In the present discussion, an unanswered phone maybe due to a so-called “ring—no answer” event or a “line is busy” event.A telephone caller may also encounter a disconnected line, an “allcircuits busy” condition or other problems preventing the call frombeing completed. In any case, process 900 continues with step 904wherein the call is diverted to an operator within the service providersystem. In step 906, the operator greets the caller and offers to assistin reaching the party by other means, such as by a chat session. In step907, the operator explores available alternatives, based oncommunications alternatives available to the operator through system 103or based upon services for which the parties may be configured orsubscribed.

[0227] In step 908, it is determined whether, according to informationgleaned in step 907, chat messaging is a viable possibility for reachingthe called party. Chat messaging may be impermissible, for example, ifthe system requires either or both of the caller and called party to besubscribed users of such service and neither of them are subscribed. Ifchat is not an option, then process 900 continues, following theconnector labeled ‘C’, to step 960 of FIG. 9D to pursue other possiblecommunications options.

[0228] If the system requires either or both of the caller and calledparty to be subscribed users of such service and neither of them aresubscribed. If chat is not an option, then process 900 continues,following the connector labeled ‘C’, to step 960 of FIG. 9D to pursueother possible communications options.

[0229] Otherwise, if, in step 908, chat messaging is seemingly viable,then process 900 continues, following the connector labeled ‘A’, to step920 to attempt to establish a chat session with the called party.

[0230] The remainder of process 900 as depicted in FIGS. 9B, 9C and 9Dis essentially identical to corresponding steps depicted in FIGS. 7B, 7Cand 8D, respectively.

[0231] As will be readily apparent to persons of ordinary skill in therelevant art, any of the functional elements, systems and processesdepicted in FIGS. 1 through 9D may be implemented in various ways using,for example, suitably equipped data processing systems or computingenvironments. Such implementations may comprise hardware, firmware,software, or combinations thereof, to accomplish intended functions inaccordance with the teachings of the present invention. For example, anyor all of voice processing system 103, billing system 123, intelligentinformation translator 125 and intelligent presence gateway 105, orfunctional subsystems depicted therein, may be implemented as processesin a program-controlled computing environment. Processes depicted inFIGS. 2A through 9D may be implemented wholly or partially as processingthreads occurring within a computer processor under software and/orfirmware control. A given process may be implemented in a distributedfashion among multiple physical processors or multiple logicalprocessing threads. A single processor may participate in implementingmultiple instances or multiple types of the processes shown. Any of thefunctions shown, or the hardware used to implement these functions, maybe distributed among remote locations or may be collocated.

[0232] It will also be appreciated that connectivity among elements forcarrying control signals, telephony-style signaling, bearer channelsignals and messaging traffic and the like, may be accomplished viacommunications through a network or a shared bus or shared memoryresources or by inter-process communications.

[0233] Even signals representing telephone audio signals may be conveyedto processing equipment in the form of data through a bus or network.Methods and devices for converting among analog audio signals anddigital data are well known and are not explicitly shown in FIG. 1,although it is common that telephone network 80 or VPS 103 are equippedto perform these conversions. Adaptation to external systems, such asthe PSTN as represented by telephone network 80, may be accomplished bythe use of well-known computer-telephony adapter cards (as those made byDialogic Communications Corporation), commercially available automaticcall distributors (ACDs) and Private Branch Exchange (PBX) equipment.

[0234] An exemplary arrangement of computing hardware suitable forimplementing functional elements and processes in accordance with thepresent invention will now be described in conjunction with FIG. 6,although it should be understood that aspects of the present inventionmay be embodied in other ways.

Hardware Overview

[0235]FIG. 6 illustrates a computer system 600 upon which an embodimentaccording to the present invention can be implemented. The computersystem 600 includes a bus 601 or other communication mechanism forcommunicating information and a processor 603 coupled to the bus 601 forprocessing information. The computer system 600 also includes mainmemory 605, such as a random access memory (RAM) or other dynamicstorage device, coupled to the bus 601 for storing information andinstructions to be executed by the processor 603. Main memory 605 canalso be used for storing temporary variables or other intermediateinformation during execution of instructions by the processor 603. Thecomputer system 600 may further include a read only memory (ROM) 607 orother static storage device coupled to the bus 601 for storing staticinformation and instructions for the processor 603. A storage device609, such as a magnetic disk or optical disk, is coupled to the bus 601for persistently storing information and instructions.

[0236] The computer system 600 may be coupled via the bus 601 to adisplay 611, such as a cathode ray tube (CRT), liquid crystal display,active matrix display, or plasma display, for displaying information toa computer user. An input device 613, such as a keyboard includingalphanumeric and other keys, is coupled to the bus 601 for communicatinginformation and command selections to the processor 603. Another type ofuser input device is a cursor control 615, such as a mouse, a trackball,or cursor direction keys, for communicating direction information andcommand selections to the processor 603 and for controlling cursormovement on the display 611.

[0237] According to one embodiment of the invention, call processing isprovided by the computer system 600 in response to the processor 603executing an arrangement of instructions contained in main memory 605.Such instructions can be read into main memory 605 from anothercomputer-readable medium, such as the storage device 609. Execution ofthe arrangement of instructions contained in main memory 605 causes theprocessor 603 to perform the process steps in accordance with any or allof the processes described or implied herein. One or more processors ina multi-processing arrangement may also be employed to execute theinstructions contained in main memory 605. In alternative embodiments,hard-wired circuitry may be used in place of or in combination withsoftware instructions to implement the embodiment of the presentinvention. Thus, embodiments of the present invention are not limited toany specific combination of hardware circuitry and software.

[0238] The computer system 600 also includes a communication interface617 coupled to bus 601. The communication interface 617 provides atwo-way data communication coupling to a network link 619 connected to alocal network 621. For example, the communication interface 617 may be adigital subscriber line (DSL) card or modem, an integrated servicesdigital network (ISDN) card, a cable modem, a telephone modem, or anyother communication interface to provide a data communication connectionto a corresponding type of communication line. As another example,communication interface 617 may be a local area network (LAN) card (e.g.for Ethernet™ or an Asynchronous Transfer Model (ATM) network) toprovide a data communication connection to a compatible LAN. Wirelesslinks can also be implemented. In any such implementation, communicationinterface 617 sends and receives electrical, electromagnetic, or opticalsignals that carry digital data streams representing various types ofinformation. Further, the communication interface 617 can includeperipheral interface devices, such as a Universal Serial Bus (USB)interface, a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card InternationalAssociation) interface, etc. Although a single communication interface617 is depicted in FIG. 6, multiple communication interfaces can also beemployed.

[0239] The network link 619 typically provides data communicationthrough one or more networks to other data devices. For example, thenetwork link 619 may provide a connection through local network 621 to ahost computer 623, which has connectivity to a network 625 (e.g. a widearea network (WAN) or the global packet data communication network nowcommonly referred to as the “Internet”) or to data equipment operated bya service provider. The local network 621 and the network 625 both useelectrical, electromagnetic, or optical signals to convey informationand instructions. The signals through the various networks and thesignals on the network link 619 and through the communication interface617, which communicate digital data with the computer system 600, areexemplary forms of carrier waves bearing the information andinstructions.

[0240] The computer system 600 can send messages and receive data,including program code, through the network(s), the network link 619,and the communication interface 617. In the Internet example, a server(not shown) might transmit requested code belonging to an applicationprogram for implementing an embodiment of the present invention throughthe network 625, the local network 621 and the communication interface617. The processor 603 may execute the transmitted code while beingreceived and/or store the code in the storage device 609, or othernon-volatile storage for later execution. In this manner, the computersystem 600 may obtain application code in the form of a carrier wave.

[0241] The term “computer-readable medium” as used herein refers to anymedium that participates in providing instructions to the processor 605for execution. Such a medium may take many forms, including but notlimited to non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media.Non-volatile media include, for example, optical or magnetic disks, suchas the storage device 609. Volatile media include dynamic memory, suchas main memory 605. Transmission media include coaxial cables, copperwire, and fiber optics, including the wires that comprise the bus 601.Transmission media can also take the form of acoustic, optical, orelectromagnetic waves, such as those generated during radio frequency(RF) and infrared (IR) data communications. Common forms ofcomputer-readable media include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexibledisk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM,CDRW, DVD, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, opticalmark sheets, any other physical medium with patterns of holes or otheroptically recognizable indicia, a RAM, a PROM, and EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM,any other memory chip or cartridge, a carrier wave, or any other mediumfrom which a computer can read.

[0242] Various forms of computer-readable media may be involved inproviding instructions to a processor for execution. For example, theinstructions for carrying out at least part of the present invention mayinitially be borne on a magnetic disk of a remote computer. In such ascenario, the remote computer loads the instructions into main memoryand sends the instructions over a telephone line using a modem. A modemof a local computer system receives the data on the telephone line anduses an infrared transmitter to convert the data to an infrared signaland transmit the infrared signal to a portable computing device, such asa personal digital assistant (PDA) or a laptop. An infrared detector onthe portable computing device receives the information and instructionsborne by the infrared signal and places the data on a bus. The busconveys the data to main memory, from which a processor retrieves andexecutes the instructions. The instructions received by main memory canoptionally be stored on storage device either before or after executionby processor.

[0243] For example, although aspects of the present invention have beendescribed with respect to computer systems executing software thatdirects the functions of the present invention, it should be understoodthat present invention may alternatively be implemented as a programproduct for use with a data processing system. Programs defining thefunctions of the present invention can be delivered to a data processingsystem via a variety of signal-bearing media, which include, withoutlimitation, non-rewritable storage media (e.g., CD-ROM), rewritablestorage media (e.g., a floppy diskette or hard disk drive), andcommunication media, such as digital and analog networks. It should beunderstood, therefore, that such signal-bearing media, when carrying orencoding computer readable instructions that direct the functions of thepresent invention, represent alternative embodiments of the presentinvention.

[0244] While the present invention has been described in connection witha number of embodiments and implementations, the present invention isnot so limited but covers various obvious modifications and equivalentarrangements, which fall within the purview of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of providing a service to a first partyusing a telephony connection, the method comprising: receivingindication from the first party that the first party desires tocommunicate with a second party who is using an instant communicationsclient; and providing communications among the first party and thesecond party, wherein the first party engages in communication usingaudio information via the telephony connection and the second partyengages in communication using textual information via the instantcommunications client.
 2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:providing indication to the first party as to whether the second partymay be accessible via the instant communications client.
 3. The methodof claim 2 wherein the providing indication to the first party isresponsive to a presence state pertaining to the second party.
 4. Themethod of claim 2 wherein the providing indication to the first party isresponsive to a capabilities profile pertaining to the second party. 5.The method of claim 1 further comprising: providing indication to thefirst party as to whether the second party will employ textualinformation to communicate via the instant communications client.
 6. Themethod of claim 5 further comprising: receiving indication from thefirst party as to whether the first party desires to proceed withcommunicating with the second party based on whether the second partywill employ textual information to communicate via the instantcommunications client.
 7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:providing to the first party a telephone number that, when called by thefirst party, signifies the desire of the first party to engage incommunications via the instant communications client used by the secondparty.
 8. The method of claim 1 further comprising: providing indicationto the first party as to whether the second party is reachable bytelephone.
 9. The method of claim 1 further comprising: receivinginformation from the first party relating to how charges for the serviceare to be paid.
 10. The method of claim 1 further comprising: providingindication to the first party that communications will proceed with thesecond party via the instant communications client.
 11. The method ofclaim 1 further comprising: providing to the first party audioinformation corresponding to textual information from the second party.12. The method of claim 11 wherein an aspect of providing the audioinformation corresponding to the textual information is affected bypreference information pertaining to at least one of the first party,the second party and the instant communications client.
 13. The methodof claim 12 further comprising: receiving the preference informationfrom the first party.
 14. The method of claim 12 wherein the aspectrelates to a language-related preference associated with the firstparty.
 15. The method of claim 12 wherein the aspect relates to at leastone of a language and a dialect used by the second party.
 16. The methodof claim 12 wherein the aspect relates to a voice characteristicimparted to synthesized speech in the audio information.
 17. The methodof claim 11 wherein the audio information selectively comprises a soundbased upon the occurrence of a pattern of symbols provided in thetextual information.
 18. The method of claim 17 wherein an aspect ofassociating the sound in the audio information to the correspondingpattern of symbols in the textual information is affected by preferenceinformation pertaining to at least one of the first party, the secondparty and the instant communications client.
 19. The method of claim 1further comprising: receiving from the first party audio information tobe converted into corresponding textual information to be provided tothe second party.
 20. The method of claim 19 wherein an aspect of howthe audio information is to be converted into corresponding textualinformation is affected by preference information pertaining to at leastone of the first party, the second party and the instant communicationsclient.
 21. The method of claim 20 further comprising: receiving thepreference information from the first party.
 22. The method of claim 20wherein the aspect relates to a language-related preference associatedwith the first party.
 23. The method of claim 20 wherein the aspectrelates to at least one of a language and a dialect used by the secondparty.
 24. The method of claim 20 wherein the aspect relates to anidentifier to be presented in the textual information to the secondparty as a screen name identity representing the first party.
 25. Themethod of claim 19 wherein the audio information comprises a sound tocause a pattern of symbols to selectively be provided in the textualinformation.
 26. The method of claim 25 wherein an aspect of associatingthe sound in the audio information with the corresponding pattern ofsymbols in the textual information is affected by preference informationpertaining to at least one of the first party, the second party and theinstant communications client.
 27. The method of claim 1 furthercomprising: receiving billing information from the first party relatingto how charges for the service are to be paid.
 28. The method of claim 1further comprising: receiving from the first party an identifier to bepresented in the textual information to the second party as a screenname identity representing the first party.
 29. The method of claim 1further comprising: receiving from the first party an identifiercorresponding to at least one of the second party and the instantcommunications client, wherein the providing communications among thefirst party and the second party is responsive to the identifier.
 30. Amethod of providing a service to a first party using a telephone, themethod comprising: providing to the first party a telephone number that,when called by the first party, signifies the desire of the first partyto engage in communications with a second party who is using an instantcommunications client; receiving a telephone call from the first party;and providing communications among the first party and the second party.31. The method of claim 30 wherein the second party engages incommunication using textual information via the instant communicationsclient.
 32. The method of claim 32 wherein the calling of the telephonenumber by the first party signifies the desire of the first party toengage in communications wherein the second party uses textualinformation to communicate via the instant communications client.
 33. Amethod of providing a service to a first party using an instantcommunications client, the method comprising: providing indication tothe instant communications client that a second party using a telephonyconnection desires to communicate with the first party; and providingcommunications among the first party and the second party, wherein thefirst party engages in communication using textual information via theinstant communications client and the second party engages incommunication using audio information via the telephony connection. 34.The method of claim 33 wherein the providing indication to the instantcommunications client is responsive to a presence state pertaining tothe first party.
 35. The method of claim 33 wherein the providingindication to the instant communications client is responsive to acapabilities profile pertaining to the first party.
 36. The method ofclaim 33 further comprising: receiving indication from the instantcommunications client as to whether the first party desires tocommunicate with the second party via the instant communications client.37. The method of claim 33 further comprising: receiving indication fromthe instant communications client as to whether the first party prefersto engage in textual communications via the instant communicationsclient.
 38. The method of claim 33 further comprising: providingindication to the first party that communications with the second partywill be performed via the instant communications client.
 39. The methodof claim 33 further comprising: receiving billing information from thefirst party relating to how charges for the service are to be paid. 40.The method of claim 33 further comprising: providing to the instantcommunications client an identifier representing the identity of thesecond party.
 41. The method of claim 33 further comprising: receivingfrom the first party textual information to be converted intocorresponding audio information to be provided to the second party. 42.The method of claim 41 wherein an aspect of how the textual informationis converted into corresponding audio information is affected bypreference information pertaining to at least one of the first party,the second party and the instant communications client.
 43. The methodof claim 42 further comprising: receiving the preference informationfrom the first party.
 44. The method of claim 42 wherein the aspectrelates to a language preference associated with the first party. 45.The method of claim 42 wherein the aspect relates to a language used bythe second party.
 46. The method of claim 42 wherein the aspect relatesto a voice characteristic imparted to synthesized speech in the audioinformation.
 47. The method of claim 41 wherein the audio informationselectively comprises a sound based upon the occurrence of a pattern ofsymbols provided in the textual information.
 48. The method of claim 47wherein an aspect of associating the pattern of symbols in the textualinformation with the corresponding sound in the audio information isaffected by preference information pertaining to at least one of thefirst party, the second party and the instant communications client. 49.The method of claim 33 further comprising: providing to the first partytextual information corresponding to audio information from the secondparty.
 50. The method of claim 49 wherein an aspect of providing thetextual information corresponding to the audio information is affectedby preference information pertaining to at least one of the first party,the second party and the instant communications client.
 51. The methodof claim 50 further comprising: receiving the preference informationfrom the first party.
 52. The method of claim 50 wherein the aspectrelates to a language preference associated with the first party. 53.The method of claim 50 wherein the aspect relates to a language used bythe second party.
 54. The method of claim 50 wherein the aspect relatesto a voice characteristic imparted to synthesized speech in the audioinformation.
 55. The method of claim 49 wherein the audio informationselectively comprises a sound based upon the occurrence of a pattern ofsymbols provided in the textual information.
 56. The method of claim 55wherein an aspect of associating the sound in the audio information withthe corresponding pattern of symbols in the textual information isaffected by preference information pertaining to at least one of thefirst party, the second party and the instant communications client.